Windows to the soul
by AlwaysEatTheRude21
Summary: Hari Potter knew loss and pain intimately. Despite this, nothing could have prepared her for the loss of Sirius. Crouched on the onyx flooring of the M.O.M, Hari snaps and the truth buried long ago comes bubbling to the surface. The only fact she knew was she would find her family. She swore it... Fem!Harry (Pairing undecided) . HAITUS.
1. Photo

Hari Potter knew loss and pain intimately. She knew the weight of it bearing down on her thin shoulders. She knew the bitter taste of unsung goodbyes it left on your tongue, like residue that would not wash away no matter how you scrubbed. She knew the ache it wrought your muscles with, the clamp and twist a hurting heart bent itself into. She knew all too well the echoes of silence that would ring your ears and imprint on your mind, leaving you alone even if you were standing in a filled room.

Despite all this, she could have never been ready for the absolution of loss and hurt that crashed upon her when Sirius Black slipped through her reaching palm and drifted into the Vale like a wisp of smoke on a summers breeze. His death, that smile etched on his lips, showing knowledge that he knew exactly what was going on, a calm, painless and peaceful death many would say, was in complete opposition to her own tempestuous and storming emotions.

That had _burned_.

The rest of the fight, the order and death-eaters going at each other's throats like dogs, clawing and howling for blood seemed nothing more than a soundtrack to her sorrow, like a T.V being left to play in the background simply for noise and nothing more. It all took back seat to the pain that washed through her as he drifted away, as Remus Lupin wrangled and wrestled her away from the towering carved stone arch, denying her the urge to follow, to fight, to jump in, grab him and bring him back to brilliant life.

She remembered crying, she remembered screaming, she remembered cornering a laughing Bellatrix, she remembered Voldemort's appearance, like snap shots taken from a shaking photographer until all she could picture was coloured blurs and smudge faces. None of it had mattered at the time, none of it had registered when locked in a loop her mind had created of Sirius's death, the only thing her tormenting mind could bring to clarity. He was there, silken waistcoat brushing her fingertips only to fall too short, gone, slipping away. He was gone, with one spell, one tumble, one too late outstretched hand, he had followed death into its eternal grip.

Her eyes had _burned._

Hari had gotten used to that feeling, the feeling of something not quite right fogging her eyes, like sunglasses she had not known she was wearing having been taken off her eyes too fast, painting the world in vivid hues, too bright to be anything but the product of being in the throes of extreme emotion, being able to see things she shouldn't be able to see, sight honed and sharper than possible, things, people, everything moving too slowly.

She had felt it the first time Vernon had raised a meaty fist to her, coming in for a second blow only for him to jar to a halt as she glared up at him in defiance, as if frozen, purple and red in his flabby and overly puffed face. If her jaw hadn't have hurt as much as it had then, she was sure she would have appreciated the flicker of horror on his face more than she probably should have.

He had retreated that time, exchanging hushed words with her Aunt Petunia about priests and orphanages. It had stopped the beatings for awhile, until he had obviously gotten over the fear of what had caused it in the first place, after all, what could frighten a raging fully grown man away from a malnourished six-year-old? Hari did not know, but she hadn't questioned it either, only thankful for the week respite it had given her. And if it happened again, if her eyes had burned the way they had before when Vernon got Handsy in his parenting, then he didn't back away again, it simply made him angrier, made the blows harder, the time she was locked in her cupboard longer.

She had felt it when she first got her Hogwarts letter, that anticipation and excitement bubbling up in her veins as she released that maybe, just maybe, she did have somewhere out there where she belonged. She had felt it when she played quidditch, high in the air, ebony curls flying out behind her, adrenalin pumping through her as she locked sight with the snitch. She had felt it when learning of Sirius's escape from Azkaban, back when she had believed he was a mass-murdering psychopath and wanted nothing more but to see the man hang for his crimes.

She had felt it when being chased by werewolves in the forbidden forest, sure death himself was nipping at her heels, pushing her faster and harder than she had ever ran before, darting between bramble bushes and trees. She had felt it when she had seen Cedric Diggory die right in front of her, Voldemort's own gaze locking onto hers in what could only be wonderment as something sparked his interest and subsequent taunting over her comrades death. She had felt it alright, multiple times.

But... She had never seen it.

That was until that point in time, that fateful turn in destiny that was brought on by witnessing the death of a loved one. Under the unbearable heat of loss and pain, sprawled on the cold, onyx flooring of the Ministry of Magic, glass raining down around her hunched form from Dumbledore's and Voldemort's showdown, Hari's eyes positively _burned_. This time, unlike all the others, it hurt. It simmered like hot coals in her eye-sockets, like her eyes had been set alight with gasoline.

Face scrunched, fist's planted on the slabs of frigid stone, Hari thought the thick, boiling hot tracks of fluid that were dripping down her face were tears, that was until one lone drop fell onto her fist, too thick to be salt water, too hot to be tears. Opening her eyes, the first and only thing she could see was red. Poignant red drop on her hand, starkly contrasting against the ivory of her skin. Then... Then she saw her distorted reflection on the polished onyx and was hit with that singular colour again.

It wasn't tears pouring down her cheeks, dripping onto the floor into a puddle, no. It was blood. Her blood. She was crying blood. Then she saw her eyes. Gone was the Avada green, replaced with that same rustic, vibrant red that was currently dribbling down her chin. Although, that wasn't all. Something black, a pattern, odd and swirling, linked like a Kaleidoscope was swirling, twirling, dancing in the vermilion depths. Her heart pounded, thudded, ricocheting off the cage of her ribs, picking up the bass in the drums of her ears. Then Voldemort's voice rang out over the twinkling of falling glass and shouts.

"Hari Potter.."

Her neck cracked with the speed in which her face swivelled to his direction. Eyes wide and open, staring, Vermilion clashing against Scarlett. The heat flared out of her eyes, smouldering her skin, scarring her. Then the flames came, bursting to life around them, licking at them, eating and marring everywhere she looked, everywhere her pupils focused on.

 _Black flames._

They say eyes are the window to the soul, her soul must have been made out of hell-fire, pain and blood. She didn't remember much, not much at all. She heard screams, she remembered Voldemort's face, for once showing something other than contempt and malice. Fear. The look suited the snake faced bastard better than any she had previously seen him adorn. She remembered the roar of the flames. Then nothing. Gone. Blank. Just like Sirius.

All she knew was black, as deep and ominous as those damned flames as she was dragged under.

* * *

 _~THREE DAYS LATER~_

When Hari awoke, she felt the stiff linen under her, rough and overly starched sheets draped over her prone body, the quiet swoosh of an open curtain when a soft wind breezed through, ruffling her bed-riddled hair. She blinked owlishly, swearing her eyes were open but still saw nothing.

In a moment of unabashed panic, thinking she had gone blind, Hari had scuttled up the bed, clawing at her face, nails dragging against the fabric that was wound around her eyes tightly until another pair of hands, old ones, withered and aged, tugged hers away, a voice, not one belonging to the hands rang out, rushed but placating, trying to calm her. She knew that voice, had heard it every day since her arrival at Hogwarts, her friend. Hermione.

"Hari! Hari stop, you're fine! We're in Hogwarts! You're safe!"

Hari's breath came in staggered huffs, even as her fingers lost their frantic tugging and pulling, the other pair of hands fading from her limited world of touch, sound and darkness. Even before he spoke, she knew whose those hands belonged to, knew only one with a grip so tight yet gentle. Dumbledore.

"Miss Granger, why don't you head back to lesson's, you've missed quiet a lot and I wish to have a word with miss Potter here. I'm sure you two can catch up at dinner."

Hermione must have nodded, the sound of fabric ruffling ringing out as Hermione bent down to pick up her bag, Hari guessed, though, she must have stalled a bit, looking back a few times before the click of a door snapped through the air, as loud as a bullet. Hari sat up with shaking limbs, yanking the thin cotton sheet away from her legs as she swung them over the edge, never letting them drop to the floor though, ending up perching on the edge of the bed as her fingers wrangled into the sheet, twisting and twirling into the cloth, clinging to a life line, grounding her to the present and not what her mind kept trying to show her.

When she had first awoken, she had thought it was all a giant misunderstanding, a dream, a nightmare. However, faced with the silence, the churning in her gut, the tension that smothered the atmosphere, she was pounded with the honesty of it all. Sirius was gone. Dead. Her voice was broken and gruff from restrained emotions when she finally did speak.

"He's gone isn't he? Sirius is dead."

Her fingers twisted in tighter, despite not being able to see through the think gauze covering her eyes, they screwed shut anyway, trying to shut out the truth her mind was blaring at her. She felt the hand, warm and large, a map of wrinkles and untold stories land on her shoulder. She tore herself away from the offered comfort.

"I'm afraid so, but that is not the sole reason for our talk. Hari... Hari, what do you remember before you lost conciousness?"

Hari scoffed, turning her head away from the direction the voice came from. She didn't want to be here, she didn't want any of this. She never wanted any of this. Her family, Sirius, the last tie she had to her family was gone, gone because she had been foolish. A ripping shattered the silence, the fabric in her unforgiving hands finally having given way to her fingers and grip.

"I don't know. It all seems like a dream. I remember Sirius falli-... I remember crying. Then... Blood. Blood and fire... But the flames... They weren't right. They were wrong, they were-"

"Black."

Harry gave a sharp nod, the memories in her mind nothing but a broken and static filled silent movie. It gave her vertigo, made her queasy with just the knowledge that her tormented mind, her grief had not conjured it up like she had hoped it had. She heard the tap, tap, tap of Dumbledore walking, stopping somewhere in front of her, baring down upon her with his inescapable presence.

She just wanted to be left alone.

"Have you ever felt like you did then? Mayhaps not the same level, but have you ever... Felt different? Your eyes, have they ever felt similar to what they did then?"

Hari wanted to tell him to fuck off. To back away. To leave her alone. All she wanted to do was rest... She was so tired. She had been tired for a while now, that kind of tired that seeped into your bones and slowed all movement, all thought. Everything felt sluggish. Maybe that was why she felt no need to fight Dumbledore on his questions, why she answered them in monotone. She felt so disconnected from everything, from everyone. She just wanted to sleep and pretend none of this had happened. In dreams, she could escape the horrors of her reality.

"Sometimes. It comes and goes. It normally happens when I get too emotional. But never like that, there was never those flames, just the same feeling, like my eyes have opened for the first time like I'm seeing truly for the first time. Like I'm a newborn staring at the world."

It was odd to explain it, difficult to say the right words that adequately described the feeling and even the ones she had chosen fell short. Hari had never been brilliant with words, she normally fell back on sarcasm and dry wit, but she was tired. For once, she didn't want to know the answers, didn't want to know how or why she had done what she had done. She didn't care. How could she? How could she focus on such drivel when Sirius, wonder-struck and dimpled Sirius was gone, forever and a day away from her? She couldn't. She didn't want to.

"I thought so. Hari, let me tell you a story."

The bed at the side of her dipped, telling her Dumbledore had sat down. She could faintly hear the tweet of a bird singing its song to the sky. She knew where she was, from the creaking of the iron cot, the stiff fabric, the hospital gown she was in, it didn't take two guesses to point out it must have been Hogwarts hospital wing, not when the stinging smell of Skele Gro drifted up her nostrils and clung there like sweet bleach. Dumbledore once again shattered the silence and peace Hari was trying to wrap around her like a well-loved cloak.

"There is this nation, I believe they call themselves the Elemental countries, just off from Japan. They're a lot like us in many ways, so much so that one could surely live in either world and find not too many obstacles or differences between what we can do and what they can. We met once, thousands of years ago, our race and theirs still in their infancy... But jealousies and petty gripes tore us apart. We were jealous of their lack of relying on wands to aid them and they were greedy to know about our extended life spans. Without saying, it ended with both races laying an excommunication against the other and baring all contact."

Her gut sank as if a cannon ball had been shoved down her throat, acid and bile climbing up her sarcophagus and strangling her. She knew Dumbledore, better than most she would say. He was just as much a viper as Tom Riddle was. Instead of coveting immortality, Dumbledore hoarded knowledge. He didn't part with it easily or willingly, only giving you snit-bits when the need absolutely called for it, and even then it was only crumbs, nothing more. To have Dumbledore sitting by her, telling her this... It didn't bode well. It meant it was instrumentally important and had something to do with her... Hari almost laughed. When did it not have anything to do with her? She could not stop the chuckle from breaking free, even as she spoke.

"This isn't a just a story is it?"

She felt more than heard Dumbledore's heavy sigh. No. This did not bode well at all. But she was tired of being in the dark, left to feel her way around only to fall through a trap door. If Dumbledore had of just told her of the prophecy, Sirius wouldn't be dead. If he had of just told her many numerous things, so many disasters and lost lives could have been diverted. But he didn't, Dumbledore never will or would tell her the full truth. She didn't think he had it in him. Long gone was when Hari saw Dumbledore through rose tinted glasses, now she saw the man underneath, the man who was as flawed and broken as the rest of them. Funny, the one time she was blind, eyes covered from the world, was the only time she was actually seeing straight. Irony was a bitch.

"No. You see Hari, in short, in these countries, there is a clan... A family if you will. They're called the Uchiha. In particular, there was one family. A mother, a father, a son and a set of twins, a brother and sister. I was travelling at the time, incognito of course, our two worlds are still not on speaking terms so to speak. I was trying to find resources for the upcoming war against Tom and hoped to find the answer where no witch or wizard dared to venture. The family seemed to be a happy one. But the youngest, the girl, she had eyes of green, it stood out against her family, so similar to another young witch I knew, it caught my eye-"

She was going to be sick as the cannon ball dropped in her gut and tore through her intestines, spinning her world on its head. If what she was reading between the lines were to believed, you had to read between the lines when Dumbledore was involved to get anywhere, everything she had ever known, everything she would have sworn black and blue to be truth seconds prior... Was a lie. Her life, her family, herself... It was all a lie.

Despite her lack of sight, the blackness swam around her, the bed beneath her disappearing leaving her to free fall. Lie after lie after hidden truth. When did it end? Hari felt like it never would. Was she just a weapon, something to pick up when needed and thrown to the dirt and bugs when her usefulness ran out? Her words were like broken glass when she spoke, sharp, reflective, jagged.

"The girl... That girl... It was me wasn't it?"

Silence reigned supreme for heart pounding seconds, a lifetime, Hari couldn't tell how long it had been before Dumbledore regretfully broke it, tone even and calm, hiding the pain underneath. Her pain. This time, when something hot and moist trailed down her cheek, breaking through the gauze wall, Hari had no doubt it was a tear.

"Yes, Hari. Desperate times call for desperate measures."

 _Desperate times call for desperate measures..._ Something shattered and broke to the side of them, a vase by the sound of it, a result of her lashing out magic. Or was it even magic? If what Dumbledore was telling her to be fact, which it likely was, then she was no witch, no Potter... She didn't belong. She didn't belong here, in this castle, in this world, in this place, with these people who kept taking and taking and never giving back.

She had never felt so alone.

"So... You took me. Why... Why would you do such a thing?"

 _Why did you leave me on this path littered with loss and dead bodies?_ Why was he telling her this now? No. She knew why to that question. He had no other option, not after what had gone down in the bowels of the Ministry of Magic. Dumbledore had been backed into a corner and only then had he come somewhat clean, no doubt he was leaving things out, he always did. What she did... Those black flames... Did that mean her family could do that? Was it a family trait? Like the Snapes with their excellence at potions, the Longbottoms with herbology, the Lovegoods and their devination? Hari's idle wanderings were cut short by Dumbledore's voice, unfortunately, with every word that passed his lips, it only angered her further.

"We... You heard the prophecy didn't you Hari? After some investigation, I found the twins fell into its boundaries. Born as the seventh month dies... I thought if there was more than one child born as the seventh month dies, not just Neville, Tom would not act. It would confuse him, give us enough time to plan a counterstrike. Lily and James Potter had come to me with their own troubles, Lily was infertile you see, all they had wanted most was to start a family. As I've said, it would be almost impossible for anyone to tell the difference. I thought from the sorrow of one family, two could be saved, the Longbottoms and the Potters... It has been one of my many mistakes, for that I am sorry."

Hari loathed that single word. Sorry. Sorry fixed nothing. Changed nothing. It made nothing easier. It healed no wounds, physical, emotional or mental. Hari would have preferred him holding his hands up and saying my bad.

"Sorry doesn't change anything. It doesn't give me a chance for a family... A family you and Tom have stolen from me twice. It doesn't bring Sirius back... The power Voldemort knows not, It's my eyes, isn't it? That's why you took me. Not because they are green, not for Lily and James, not for the Longbottoms, but for what they can do."

The answer shattered what little self-esteem, hope, a dream of a future of being just Hari and not the girl who lived, or the saviour or any other redundant titles strangers threw upon her world-weary shoulders.

"Yes, Hari."

To be whittled down to a body part, her importance, her life, her usefulness, to have that all laid down on one singular part of herself, a genetic trait at that, it was degrading, in-humanising, hurtful. If they wanted them that bad, if all her worth laid in her eyes, if it stopped anyone else from needlessly dying, she would gauge them out and give them to them... If only to have a family.

But... She had a family.

Dumbledore had not told her they were dead, he would have if that had been factual. They could still be out there, living, happy, laughing and joking. All she had ever wanted, all she had ever dreamed about in her cubby hole, it was out there, at her fingertips. Sirius was gone, Lily and James too, but she had family out there, blood out there, waiting. Vertigo hit her all at once again. Dumbledore may have taken that from her, but it wasn't gone, it wasn't out of her reach. She could get it back.

Family... Hari had a family.

But she couldn't get to them. Not now. Maybe not ever if she died by the wand point of Voldemort. But the hope, the dream, it was there, flickering in the wind like a candle. If she lived through this, if she survived, she could find them. Still, the pain of knowing that could all be nothing more than a dream, never to become a reality, it hurt that much more than if she had thought them all to be dead. Bitter, Hari snarled at Dumbledore. She was nothing but another trinket to stash away in his office. Nothing but a chess piece on his board.

"... I hate you... I hate you so much."

The hand landed on her shoulder once more and this time Hari didn't fight it, couldn't garner up the strength to. Dumbledore was calm when he spoke, brutal in all his honesty, and oddly, Hari was thankful for the words he said next.

"I know. I wouldn't expect anything less."

His hand slipped from her shoulder like a tablecloth from a table and Hari was left in the abyss that was trying to swallow her whole. She felt weak, like a kitten, shaky and gangly limbed. The problem was she couldn't be weak, not now, not ever. If she was going to survive this, as much as it hurt her to say it, she needed Dumbledore and his little tokens of information. Of course, he likely knew that too and was one of the reasons he had thought to tell her the truth now rather than before.

"That's why some things don't come to me, isn't it? And why others come easier? Why every time I use a wand, it feels so wrong I could be sick? You... You tore me out of my own home, away from my family, from my own world to fix your own. I don't know who is worse, you or Voldemort."

Dumbledore chuckled, lacking all humour and warmth, derision aimed at himself. Hari wanted nothing more to never hear from the man again, but she couldn't, she was as trapped in this course as the earth's orbit around the sun. Dumbledore, Voldemort, fucking fate and destiny had made done that. She would play her part in the dance others had constructed for her, she had no other path to walk but this one. But by Merlin almighty himself, if she was alive at the end of this, her life would finally be her _own._ No Voldemort. No wars. No Dumbledore. No manipulations.

"I never claimed to be a good man Hari. I do what I must for my people. I will pay for my mistakes, for that I am sure. Your differences Hari will be what saves us, it will be what finally brings down Voldemort, what you did at the ministry only proved that."

Hari scoffed but it came out more like a growl from some wild beast that haunted the forbidden forest. Her fingers were cramping from the pressure being pumped into them, the skin taut over knuckle and bone, white like porcelain.

"So what? I fight your war, the one you thrust me into, and if... If I survive I get to skip off into the rainbow?"

This time Dumbledore patted her back as if she was some puppy about to retrieve a treat for being a good little girl. Hari wanted to bite his Merlin damned hand clean off. But it wasn't just Dumbledore's war, neither was it just Voldemort's and the death-eaters. It had been Sirius's, it was Remus's, it had been Lily's and James's. For them, for Sirius, she would carry on. She couldn't... Wouldn't let him die in vain, not when it was her fault he had died in the first place, due to her foolhardy and headstrong nature. For him, she would have walked to the ends of the world.

"You'll live Hari, I have every faith in you."

Hari's answer was muted, nothing but an exhale of breath.

"You're the only one..."

Yet, it wasn't just the fallen one's war either. Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna, they would all be swept up into it too if Hari didn't act. Even if she did act, they could die, some will die, that was the way of war but if she sat out, if she ran off to find a family that could have very well forgotten her, she could never live with herself, knowing she had turned her back on those few who meant so much to her.

After all, these Uchiha was it? She had been gone fourteen years, what was a few more on top of that?

"Fine. I'll fight. Not for you or Voldemort or anyone else, but for my friends, for the few loved ones I have left. For the hope I still have left that one day I'll find peace."

She would fight for a dream. For a hope. It was the only thing she had left, the only thing that would keep her going after the loss of Sirius. For Hermione, for Ron, for a chance at finally finding and holding that one elusive thing that had been denied her since she could remember.

 _A Family._

"You have a goodness in you Hari that is almost blinding... It's been a tiring day, have some rest, those bandages should come off in a week or so. Goodnight Miss Potter. One last gift, here, take it. It was the only thing I took that night I also took you."

Hari could hear Dumbledore come to a stand, the sound of his long robes swishing on the stone flooring. Then something was fluttering into her lap, forcing her to let go of her sheets, her fingers tingling at the release of pressure to grab a hold of the object. It was thick, glossy on one side and rectangular. A Photo. Her fingers nearly tore into the paper when that pressure in her limbs came slamming back into her muscles. She heard the tap of Dumbledore retreating steps, slowly fading but before he could go Hari's tongue acted on its own and she shouted at his back.

"I'll find them!"

The absence of sound told her he had stopped in his tracks, so Hari carried on, soldiered on. After all, that was what she was best at, wasn't it?

"I'll find them... The family you took me away from? I'll find them. When all this is said and done, if I still have breath in my lungs, I'll find them. My brothers, my mother, my father, I'll find them all."

Hari heard no laughter but she could hear the jovial twist in his tone, the happiness leaking from his words like nectar from a flower. Dumbledore was not inherently bad, no, he just did what he thought he must. He was born and wrung from three wars, living through that, it had hardened him, turned him cold in some respects, but not evil, not like Tom Riddle. To a man like Dumbledore, nothing was above for the greater good. He was no hero, just a human and like all humans, Hari included, they had flaws.

"I'm sure you will Hari."

The click of the door shutting resonated through her skull, ringing like a church bell, whether shouting a birth or a funeral, Hari couldn't tell. It felt ominous all the same, like a nail being driven into her coffin. After a few moments of silence, Hari jumped into action, tearing off the bandage wrapped around her eyes, blearily blinking as she looked at the photo in her hand.

It was a pretty picture to be sure, a happy one with cursive writing at the bottom, five names proudly boasting the inhabitants, her name last in the line up, startling her when it was paired with a name not Potter but Uchiha. Hari Uchiha.

A man and a woman, the man stern but with a twinkle in his eye that spoke of hidden merriment, the woman nothing but smiles. At their legs stood a boy, his mother's features prominent but his father's stern facial expression and colouring just as potent. In the woman's arms lay a bundle wrapped in jewel blue, almost a mirror image of her with her ebony blue hair and dark eyes, a trait the whole family possessed but one, a chubby thing with a gummy smile and flushed cheeks. Almost in a polarizing position was the last member of the family, wrapped in red cloth, thick ebony curls, the only one to have curls it seemed, the same colour as the woman's blue/black peeking out, same chubby and toothless smile and rosy cheeks but eyes the shade of spring green, safely held in the father's arms, one arm free from the cloth prison and reaching for the camara with what looked like a frozen giggle.

Her. This was her and her family. They looked happy, even the stern little boy standing in front of the couple could not hide the upturn to the edge of his lips. You could tell just by looking at them they were related, and even grown up and in the cusp of adult-hood, given the photo of the woman, Hari was almost her mirror image all apart from her eyes and rambunctious curls... It was almost eery. No. Not almost. It was down right chilling.

The truth hit home, the loss of Sirius still aching, her world disintegrating around her, Hari let out a cry that sounded more like a war shout than anything else as she crumpled in on herself, clutching at the picture. The picture showed everything she had ever wanted, all she had ever hoped for... All that had been stripped away from her because she was born on a certain day. Hari slid off the bed, knees whacking unforgivingly on the stone mason flooring, crying as the picture pressed closer to her breast and pounding heart.

For the first time in a long time, since the first time Vernon had locked her in that cupboard for 'miss behaving' Hari sobbed until she heaved. She had a family. A family she could not find until Voldemort was dead and gone or she was, she couldn't drag them into this war, couldn't risk them after only just finding out she had a chance at a family. They would be prime target if Voldemort ever found out. It felt as if you had put a glass of water in front of a desert survivor, telling him not to drink it. But that didn't change anything, didn't change that she had a family out there, somewhere.

That spark of hope turned to a full blaze in her sternum.

A family she would one day find. She promised herself that, come death, hell-fire, high water, Voldemort's army, she would find them.

 _She swore it._

* * *

 _ **Well, did you like it?**_

I have no idea where this came from, neither if I will continue it or not. I just sat down today and started typing and... This came out XD. **Should I continue?** I have a few idea's of where I could take it, and I do want to carry it on but nothing set in stone. Either way, I hoped you enjoyed it and if you do want whatever the hell this is to continue, please leave a review or a P.M, because apart from a sketchy plot, I have no idea where this will go or if it will go anywhere. However, if you guys do want it to continue, please leave a pairing as I have no clue what-so-ever what it should be and I'm a sucker for a bit of romance. I full heartedly mean that.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my mad musings and I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, stay beautiful!- _AlwaysEatTheRude21_


	2. Snap-Shots

_~Aggressive~_

Dumbledore was dead, spelled off the astronomy tower by a man he had trusted. Unfortunately, that wasn't all that he had taken with him in his shattering plummet back down to earth. With him, all her hopes of trying to get stronger through her heritage, the knowledge she needed to defeat Voldemort, stories of where she came from, who she came from had splintered onto the floor like he had, leaving behind nothing but a mess for others to clean up.

In the months following Hari's big revelation, Dumbledore had avoided everything to do with the Uchiha, Elemental nations or teaching Hari how to become stronger since he had walked out of the hospital wing that fateful day, no matter how hard she had pushed and prodded to find out more.

If she ever actually hoped to defeat Voldemort, she at least needed to know how to use the eyes she had been kidnapped for in the first place. Surely, that was common curtsey in an abduction? Dumbledore had sworn her to secrecy though, likely due to the still, according to him, prominent hostilities between the two races, stopping her from asking anyone else for help, only to die before he could tell or teach her anything personally. She was in this alone, she would have to figure it out herself, she would have only herself to rely upon. What was any different than before?

Hari had never felt such unadulterated rage towards someone before.

* * *

 _~Agonized~_

Hari huffed and puffed as she pushed herself as far as she could into the brick wall at her back, trying her hardest to blend in, peeking out and around the corner, watching as Snatchers and ministry officials ran passed, wands out and ready... Looking for her, hunting her as if she was some rabid dog to be put down. She supposed that was what happened when you became desirable number one.

It had been a gamble, one she would've paid for with her life if things had have gone wrong, which there had been a prominent chance it would end that way, but in the end, the book she had stolen from Borgin and Burkes, currently hid in the flap of her cloak, was well worth the seeping wound oozing blood from a well-aimed slicing hex, agonizing and blazing with each crooked limp she took.

No doubt, when she arrived at the Burrow, to get ready for Bill's and Fleur's wedding in three weeks time, Molly would have her head for such a foolish act. Hopefully, without too much explaining, still having told no-one of her real parents, Hari could weasel her way out of it. No one had to know she had visited Knockturn Alley before going to the Burrow.

From all her research, all her fruitless fingering through wizarding book-stores, libraries and shops, everything had come up blank. All apart from this one book collecting dust in the back room of Borgin and Burkes. Only when she was sure the Snatchers were truly gone did she pull the heavy tome out, thumb brushing over the embossed title, the colours faded and flaking from time.

 _Uchiha and the Shinobi way of life._

* * *

 _~Anxious~_

According to the first chapter of the dishearteningly vague book, the first step to a 'Shinobi' way of life, a word Hari summarised was similar to their warrior, something she would need to be to win this war, was to find out what elements your Chakra, theirs... Hers too, equivalent to magic, harmonized with.

However, it didn't explain how you were supposed to do that.

So, Hari had to come up with her own way, she only hoped she had done it right. Hiding in Ginny's room, the Weasley's downstairs greeting guest's, the first time she was able to break away from the crowd for the last three weeks and have some alone time, Hari gathered up what she hoped would do for her half-baked plan of attack. A lit candle for fire, a feather for wind, a rock for earth and a glass of water for, well, water. Picking them up one by one, she slowly flared her magi-... Chakra, she still had difficulty not calling herself a witch and coming to terms with what she truly was, into the objects and patiently waited for something, anything to happen.

The pebble simple rolled out her hand, likely due to her numb fingers for waiting over half-an-hour to see if anything happened. The water sloshed a little and the anxiousness bubbling in Hari's gut climbed only to simmer down when that was all it did. However, when she picked up the candle and pushed just a little Chakra out, the candle's flame flared so bright and wide it nearly singed her eyebrows off, and when the feather sawed up, dancing across the ceiling, Harry couldn't help but let out a joyful laugh.

"Hari? Are you coming down soon? The ceremony is about to begin!"

Wind and fire... She could work with that. Dusting her hands off, Hari clambered up, shut the big book and hid it under her bed, jogging to the door, readjusting her red dress before slipping out the room.

"Just coming Hermione!"

* * *

 _~Apologetic~_

"Where do you think you're going Hari?"

Hari grimaced as the sleepy but anger laced voice of Hermione Granger blustered from behind her, sounding more like a bark from a dog than from a human. She had been hoping to make a quick get-away, no goodbyes, she loathed them, in the dead of the night. They knew what they needed to look for now, Horcruxes.

The longer Harry put it off, the less she would actually want to go. She could always train and practice while on the run, she just couldn't stomach putting the Weasley's in any more danger than she already had. The disaster that was Bill's and Fleur's wedding had shown her that. Where she was, the death-eaters would follow. They would always come. Just as Hari opened her mouth to answer, another voice, Ron's, rang out from the open doorway she had been originally trying to slip out of.

"Yeah, you really didn't think you would be going anywhere without either me or Hermione, did you? We're in this together mate."

Turning to face him, Hari saw him already in travelling clothes, his and Hermione's satchels plonked at his feet, as if he too had planned to leave this night. Sheepishly, though grinning, Hari scratched the back of her neck. A nervous tick of hers she had never been able to kick.

"Sorry."

Ron chuckled, reaching down to pick up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder as Hermione marched passed Hari to join him in the doorway, whispering on her way passed.

"No need to say sorry Hari, just remember, this isn't just your war. It's ours too. We do this together or not at all."

Hari had never been so thankful for the friends she had.

* * *

 _~Arrogant~_

Maybe she had become a little arrogant in her self-tutoring... Okay, maybe a lot. She, Hermione and Ron were only a few days into their hunt, having set camp in a none-dispute woods, and Hari had already figured out how to activate her eyes on whim, a long and drawling task that had taken a good amount of time to accomplish, but one she had persevered with a stony will that spoke more of pure stubbornness than anything else, when she came across a page that had caught her eye.

Jutsus where what she guessed was their... Her's too, she had to keep reminding herself she was one of them too, version of spells. So, when seeing a rather colourful painting on the opposite of the text, showing a man blowing a boulder-sized fireball out his mouth, she may have been too hasty in her eagerness.

Who could blame her? She bet a good few people would pay well to see the snake bastards face melt off.

Of course, it had ended in tears. Hari had done it, given it was on her seventeenth time in trying, only to miss aim the thing and send it hurling towards their tent. Thankfully, Hermione and Ron were down by the river collecting water. However, they did come back, screaming and worried about already being discovered, only easing in temperament when Hari had sheepishly explained she was practising her incendio and it had gotten out of hand.

After that, Hari knew what her problem was. She needed her mindset fixed before trying the bigger things, lest she accidentally save Voldemort the job and charcoal herself.

Luckily for everyone, Hermione had packed an extra tent. Her for-sight was really frightening sometimes.

* * *

 _~Bashful~_

She didn't remember much of the dream she was having, not much at all when Hermione shook her awake, telling Hari it was her time to take watch. However, she did feel bashful, as if Hermione had walked in on her in a very intimate moment. Not physically but emotionally. As if whatever she had been dreaming was something precious to her, something she didn't want to share quite yet. If only she could remember more than little snap-shots she could.

Plonking at the base of a gnarled, old tree after exiting the tent, Hari folded her arms around her, barring out the cold gust of wind that was howling around her, mirroring her emotions.

She remembered a boy smiling down at her, black hair and black eyes, extremely tall despite his obvious shortness, as if she was little herself. Tiny in comparison. She remembered a giggle, a weird type of symbol, a red and white thing that resembled a old hand fan. Most of all, she remembered the joy she felt as the boy bent down and flicked her nose.

In the dead of the night, alone, huddled by a tree, Hari delved a hand into her inner jacket pocket, pulling out a slip of folded paper, gingerly unfolding it. Feeling the weight of the war bearing down upon her, feeling the loneliness creeping into her pores and thoughts, Hari stared down at the photo of a family.

Her family.

* * *

 _~Blissfull~_

A month into their Horcrux hunting, Hari had taken to running each morning under the pretence of shaking off anxiety and stress, something to clear her mind, although, that was truth in part. Every day spent on the run felt like another cement brick tied to her feet, dragging her under the current.

The other part was her trying to get faster. According to the book written by some unknown wizard who had visited the Elemental nations when the races had been on speaking terms, Shinobi were able to move at fast speeds without the aid of apparition or brooms.

It became a game of sorts, a routine too. Every morning she would wake up with Hermione, go for her run, using a small pond three miles away as a halfway point, and when she got back, ask Hermione how long she had been gone. It was simple. It was productive. It worked.

The first day had been a disappointing three hours before she got back, puffing and red in the face. But slowly, ever so slowly, each day, each run, she managed to knock some time off. What was it the book had said? Be not afraid of going slow, be afraid of standing still. Progress was progress.

On that particular sunny morning, a rarity these days, Hari pushed herself as hard as she could, blocking out everything but the motion of running, the pounding of her feet, the snaps of twigs breaking the whoosh of wind whistling passed her ears. When she made it back to camp, out of breath, hands braced on her knees as she sucked in much-needed oxygen and asked Hermione the fateful question, she could have never guessed the answer.

"How long was I gone Hermione?"

"What do you mean Hari? You only just left two minutes ago."

Hari laughed, despite the bewildered look Hermione shot her way. So that was what bliss felt like.

She still ran everyday. After all, there was always the chance of getting faster.

* * *

 _~Cautious~_

They had the Locket. It should seem like a milestone, another step towards the end, however, all Hari felt was the noose tightening around her neck. The days grew short and the nights long. The reason? They had no idea how to destroy it. The locket was heavy around each of their throats and the cracks in their friendships were beginning to show. The locket was poison, seeping into every insecurity, grudge, quip and indignation, festering it with malice and hatred.

Ron, normally so joyful, loud and exuberant turned sour, snarky and depressive. Each day he would simply sit at the small table they had in their tent, listening to the radio, mumbling and snarling to himself.

Hermione wasn't fairing much better, she was bossy on a good day, now... Now she was downright controlling, derisive and acidic in everything from how much they could and couldn't eat, when to sleep, who did what and her random outburst of rage she aimed at whoever was closest.

Hari hardly had any room to talk. She more often than not found herself staring at the photo she kept hidden and on her always, wondering why she was still here, why she was fighting for these people that wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire, even punching Ron squarely in the jaw one time when he had tried to take a peak.

Hari felt the days of the trio were numbered, the executioner walking to the gallows as they all became cautious around each other, paranoid, distant... Alone.

* * *

 _~Concentrating.~_

Ron was gone... He had left... Sure, the arguments were practically none stop, one always riding on the tails of another. But to leave, after all they had gone through? Even then, hungry, aching, alone, cold, sure her death was imminent, Hari would never abandon Hermione or him.

Now Hermione was crying all the time, never speaking to Hari as if it was somehow her fault the big ginger blood traitor had run home to his mummy. Hari viciously shook her head, curls flying around her. No. That wasn't her thoughts, that was the locket, the damned locket she was staring at, glistening as it laid deceptively innocently on the table between her and Hermione.

Scrubbing at her eyes with tired hands, Hari's thoughts swirled. What good were her eyes if she couldn't use them? Sure, she could activate them now, easily, painlessly, see in that multi-faceted way they allowed her to, but no matter what she tried, that fire never came back. Those black flames never burst to life. Finally snapping, sick of concentrating on things she couldn't control, Hari jolted to a stand, snatched up the locket and marched out the tent, Hermione shouting at her back, finally speaking to her.

"Hari, what are you doing? Hari!"

* * *

 _~Capricious~_

Throwing the locket onto the ground, Hari let loose. First, she stomped on it repeatedly. When that didn't work, she began firing spells, watching as it did nothing but caused the locket to jump further and further away, further into the dank night. Then she made the mistake of activating her eyes.

The locket reacted immediately, opening and spewing out a thick smog of ink coloured clouds. Unluckily, Hermione had caught up just as the fog threatened to overpower Hari and swallow her. Reacting on instinct, Hari jumped back, barrelling into Hermione and taking her down too. The two crashed down onto the floor just as footsteps rang out, a voice following.

"Hari, Hermione, are you okay? Merlin! What the fuck is that?!"

Both girls snapped to Ron's direction... And so did the locket, the smoke billowing towards him. For all the times he could come back, he chose now? Then Hari had realized where she had gone wrong, where she had failed. The black flames, they didn't come when she wanted to destroy something, quite the opposite.

They came when she wanted to protect something. Back in the ministry, Sirius still cooling on the floor, Hari didn't want to kill Voldemort or Bellatrix, she had wanted to protect her friends, protect Remus from the same fate that had befallen Sirius.

And so, as Hari darted in front of the smoke faster than she should have been able to, in front of Ron, caging him from danger, protecting him, as the tomoe in her eyes changed to a Kaleidoscope, as the black flames burned bright and alive, eating at the Horcrux, the thing sounding like it was screaming into the night, Hari realized why and how she would defeat Voldemort.

She had people to protect and that would always make her work harder, run faster, be stronger than he was. Love was more powerful than greed, it always had been and it always would be.

When the locket stopped screaming and was nothing but ash in the black flames that still burned, as the kaleidoscope morphed back to the unsettling red and pin-wheel tomoe eyes but never back to green, as Hermione and Ron came to face her, even as she still stared at the flames, Hermione's startled exclamation jolted her back to the real world, her heart stopping in her chest.

"What the hell is wrong with your eyes Hari!"

* * *

 _~Confident~_

When Hari had explained it all to the pair, she had expected anything but what they gave, yet hoped and anticipated for what they did. With a quick berating from Hermione telling her that they were always there for her, and a _'That's bloody cool mate. Not the whole kidnapping part, but the whole eyes that see shit and shoot fucking fire seems pretty epic."_ from Ron that had made her laugh until her sides hurt, Hermione had snatched her book from her and began researching.

"It's amazing Hari, Ron. I've never seen anything like it. They're like us but so different. With witches and wizards, it's like we have a reservoir of magic, something inside us we draw from, I suppose that's why we only do one spell at a time, and how slow it takes to 're-fill', like a gun... A muggle weapon Ron. With Shinobi and Chakra wielders, they have a complete network set up in their bodies, a constant flow of channels running through them, like a nervous system. They can do multiple things that even we can't hope to do! No wonder you're not getting anywhere in your training Hari, you're treating it as if you're still a witch, as if you're using magic and don't have this Chakra system inside yourself. First, we should start with-"

As much as Hari appreciated their quick acceptance and offered help, she tuned out the rest of Hermione's rant. Right now, hearing what she should and shouldn't be doing wasn't on her top priority list. Feeling a soft and warm hand on her shoulder, Hari slowly turned to face a smiling Ron, periwinkle eyes twinkling in the camp-fire as the sun began to rise in the sky, breaking through the thick trees.

"At the end Hari, you'll find your family. I know you will."

Reaching up, Hari squeezed Ron's hand, not letting go, even as Hermione's rambles began speaking about walking on water and producing lightning. Glancing down to her other hand, she once again looked at the photo she had carried with her, the photo she had finally shown Ron and Hermione. The photo of her and her family.

She didn't know how much she needed to hear another person say that until Ron had. Maybe she could win this war after all.

* * *

 _~Disappointed~_

"Good news or bad news?"

Hari sighed deeply from her sprawled form laid on the forest floor. Hermione had put her through the ringer, asking her to try this, try that, testing her, pushing her limits. At this point, Hari wanted nothing more than to stand up, snatch that damned book from Hermione's grasp and burn the thing. She would have too if her legs would stop shaking and actually take her weight.

"Either."

Now it was Hermione's time to sigh forlornly as she flickered through the books pages, scanning its content with alert golden brown eyes.

"You have a massive amount of Chakra, that's not up for debate. Even being a witch, I think I can feel it, like a heavy pressure whenever you're around. You're fast and precise, faster than most that this book describes by a large difference. You can also do spells, or versions of spells made from Chakra instead of magic, it should give you an edge in a fight, with wizard or Shinobi, neither expecting the twist. They're your strong points... However, if I can feel it, your Chakra, that means it would be a bloody beacon to others like you. This book says you should be able to mask it, hide it. You're also completely shite at controlling that Chakra. Look what you did to that forest back in Darby, I asked you to blow away a twig and you blew away nearly a mile of trees with a tornado of all things. If we're going to get anywhere, you're going to have to learn to control it. Which means learning something called Chakra control. There's a few lesson's written here... Have you ever tried walking on water Hari?"

Hari's head flopped to the floor, her eyes closing. She had never been so disappointed in herself before. How was she meant to protect anyone if she couldn't control what she could do? She couldn't hope to be able to. As tired as she was, as much as all she wanted to do was sleep for the next year, Hari achingly pushed herself up to a wobbling stand, staring at Hermione with a slip of a smile.

"Well, you know what they say, no time like the present. Is there a lake around here?"

* * *

 _~Exhausted~_

Three weeks later and as tired as could be humanly possible, Hari laughed as she held her hands out and twirled, Hermione and Ron on the shoreline, egging her on. Glancing down, she watched as the deep blue water rippled under her feet.

 _Under her feet._

It was easy once she had figured out how to do it, stem the flow of Chakra that coursed through her, creating little pockets of air underneath the souls of her trainers, finally allowing her to walk across the water she had fallen into more times than she would like to admit.

Staggering back to the shore, Hari was greeted with a well done by Hermione and a clap on the back by Ron. However, as bone tired as she was, the affectionate pat felt like a punch as her jelly legs gave out, collapsing to the floor in a tangle. Ron was quick to hoist her back up, wrapping one of her arms around his broad shoulders, helping her to stay straight as they hobbled to their camp-site.

"Hari, you should have said you were feeling tired! You can't push yourself so much-"

Hari cut Hermione off with a sharp look through the curtain of her hair.

"I'm fine."

The truth was, if it meant Hermione, Ron, Remus, the Weasley's, Tonks survived this war, she would push herself until her bones broke and she physically couldn't move any more. She needed to push herself if she was going to win this war. She needed to push herself to protect those around her. She needed to push herself if she was ever going to see her family.

Still, she passed out before her head fully hit the pillow, a worried glance shared between Hermione and Ron.

* * *

 _~Frightened~_

Hari had never been as scared as she had been when the three of them infiltrated Gringotts, under the use of Polyjuice, trying to break into Bellatrix's vault of all places.

They had nearly been caught too, at the gate of her room, the goblin that had led them down finally clocking on something wasn't as right as he had originally believed it to be. However, before the little snaggle-toothed critter could run off and sound the sirens, Hari's eyes had simmered to Scarlett and the oddest thing had happened when they locked gazes.

She couldn't really explain it, only that she had imagined a place, a tea room and had somehow dragged the goblin into it... Mentally that was. They stood outside the open vault, watching as the little goblin began pouring tea that wasn't there, lost in the world Hari had dragged him into.

Only after the destruction of yet another Horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, another victory that sang in her blood did Hari find what she had done, the word for it written in scrawling script under the most dangerous techniques from the Elemental nations, warning readers of its potency and warning the wizarding populace of its existence.

 _Genjutsu._

* * *

 _~Grief~_

That talent she exceeded in, nearly masterfully, a born gift as Hermione had said, in the illusionary art called Genjutsu came well in the most horrible of ways.

Somehow Snatchers had grabbed them, Hari not being able to use her speed to get away as she couldn't and wouldn't abandon Hermione and Ron to where-ever they were taking them, and she would have only been able to carry one. They had ended up in the hands of Bellatrix and Fenrir Greyback, in Malfoy manor, locked in basement cells, sure the end was near when Hari heard the cackling of Bellatrix warning of Voldemorts imminent arrival.

At last second they had been saved by Dobby, precious Dobby, but not without a price. A price Hari had bleeding over her legs as she cradled Dobby to her chest on a beach, crying over him as he slowly faded away from her, to another world like Sirius.

Trying to stop the sobs but failing at stemming the tears, Hari ran a trembling hand over Dobby's head, voice breaking as she spoke.

"Look at me Dobby, look at me and only me."

Dobby did as she requested without question, he always did and the lump in Hari's throat felt like granite as he was instead greeted with red instead of vibrant green.

Instead of a tea shop, Hari conjured up a lush field with spring flowers of powder blue and baby pink, a cherry tree right in the middle, another version of herself standing underneath it's shade, calling for Dobby, smile wide and hand outstretched, waiting for Dobby, Kreacher and other house-elves she had seen around Hogwarts calling out to him with equally brilliant smiles.

In this world of cloudless sunshine, open fields and laughter, Dobby's hand slipped from hers as he laughed, the two having been stood side by side, jogging over to the group in the distance waiting for him, butterflies dancing through the air.

In the real world, Dobby's eyes began to lose their spark of life, his limbs flopping as he chuckled, bringing up blood and with his parting words, Hari broke.

"Such a beautiful place it is, to be with friends. Dobby is happy to be with his friends, Hari Potter."

Hari sobbed.

* * *

 _~Guilty~_

War was pain. War was loss. War was death. War was everything wrong with humanity wrapped into one thriving ball of destruction. This was the moment, everything Hari had ever worked towards, the end... The beginning, all of it.

Standing in a little alcove that overlooked the main courtyard of Hogwarts, Hari pushed away everything around her, simply focusing on her breathing. People would die tonight, that was not up for question. Voldemort and his army were blasting down the wards that had kept Hogwarts safe for over a thousand years. The order was gearing up, so were the few students who had stayed to fight. And Hari... Hari was just breathing, existing.

People would die tonight and in part, it would be all her fault. If Voldemort had of succeeded that night fifteen years ago, if he had picked anyone else but her, it would have never come to this.

"Hari... It's time. The wards are about to fall."

Remus's voice was an irritant in the little fraction of inner peace Hari was trying to find before all hell broke loose. Still, she nodded and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths, readying herself for the blood about to be spilled. When they re-opened, gone was the welcoming and sparkling green and back was the red. She was ready. This finished tonight. By dawn, either she or Voldemort would be nothing but dust in the wind.

She would feel guilty later. Now... Now she had to fight.

* * *

 _~Hurt~_

Fred Weasley was dead. Pavarti Patil was dead. Angelina Johnson was dead. Sean Finnigan was dead. The hurt and guilt felt like a gaping jaw about to eat her whole. Standing in the forbidden forest, walking calmly to a clearing, Hari knew there would be one more joining them in eternal rest.

She had given it her all, had fought with every fibre of her being, every atom, but she couldn't be everywhere at once. While saving Remus and Tonks from a blast that would surely kill them, leaving another orphan, Fred had been cornered and killed. Protecting Minerva from a pissed off Dolohov sneaking up behind her had lead to Pavarti's death. Using her new-found speed to whisk Ginny out of a collapsing corridor had led to Angelina's death. And Sean had died when she wasn't fast enough to cast a Genjutsu on a crowd of hysterical Death-eaters.

But she could protect them all now, there would be no more deaths, all she had to do was give up that little spark of hope that had carried her this far. The hope she would survive and find her family. She almost wanted to laugh, she wanted to cry, she wanted to scream and shout.

Dumbledore had known it would come down to this all along. Him, back in that hospital wing, telling her she would find her family in the end, it had all been a lie. Dumbledore had needed her to die. The people she loved needed her to die.

She was the final Horcrux.

So, she would die. For them. For everyone, she would die. There was no other way. Walking to her death, she felt strangely peaceful, like deep down she had known this would happen all along. The hope and dream of finding her family nothing but a pretty lie to tell herself to get her to this very moment.

It hurt more than anything else.

And like that fairy tale of the Deathly Hallows, with her wand at her side, her eyes green, as Voldemort goaded her, boasted of his victory, as the putrid green flash hit her squarely in the chest, she had greeted death like an old friend.

* * *

 _~Heart~_

She didn't know where she was, couldn't recognize the alien architecture, nor the people with dark hair and dark eyes roaming around her, but she still felt that blanket of peace, especially when she saw that fragment of Voldemort's soul on the corner of the road, wither and die. Hari strolled down the bustling street of what looked like a village or a complex of sorts, people chatting and laughing around her.

"...Hari..."

Hari paused in her walk, foot half raised, only now realizing the strange garb she was wearing. She had never seen sandals quite like this, nor the tight black trousers, or the grey armoured vest she was wearing over a black armless turtle-neck. She recognized the white and red fan design she had blazoned across her chest like a badge but not the weird dragon shaped mask strapped to her thigh...

Her thoughts felt sluggish, unhurried, broken in places. But she thought... She thought she was dead...

"...Hari..."

Oh, right, someone was calling her. Turning around unhurriedly, people around her still passing by like she was invisible, Hari got hit in the gut with the sight that greeted her.

They looked the same as the photo, the man and woman, though both were openly smiling now, the man beckoning her with open arms and tear mist eyes. Hari's feet began running for them before she could think a coherent thought. As soon as she got within distance, his arms wrapped around her and Hari had never felt as she did right then. Whole. Right. Safe. Protected.

"Oh, Hari. What have you done?"

Tears fell from her own eyes as she clung tighter, fingers clenching the back of his kimono-esque top, coming to a revelation she didn't want to come to. If she was dead, if they were here with her now... They were dead too. It had all been for nothing. Her dream, her hope, it was all for naught. But she was with them now. No one could take her away again.

"You're here... You're here."

The man, her father, Fugaku's voice brushed the shell of her ear as he spoke, fluttering her hair.

"But they are not and they need you."

The sluggishness returned, fogging her cognitive abilities, drawing out the process of trying to figure out what he was talking about.

"Who's not here... What are you talking about?"

He pulled away, his hands warm and soft, calloused, cradled her face, his thumb stroking away the tear tracks that had fallen and crested on her cheek. Glancing to her mother, Mikoto, who looked so much more like Hari than she had in the photo, as the woman came closer, running a hand through Hari's hair, the three huddled in an intimate embrace in the middle of a crowded strange street, only then did she recognize the two people missing. Her brothers. Fugaku's voice was gentle as he spoke but held a stern underlying, like a bar of iron wrapped in silk.

"Itachi has the skill. Sasuke has the will. But you... You little Tonbo..."

His forehead brushed against hers, staying there, mind pressed against mind.

"You have the heart. You can not live without a heart. They need you."

He pulled away completely, followed by Mikoto, leaving Hari feeling cold and bereft as a tugging began in her sternum, soft but gaining strength with each tug.

"But... But I've only just found you! I can't go now... Please!"

They began slipping away from her, the surroundings growing blurred, white, bleached, like she was on a conveyor belt being dragged away, even as she began to walk, run, trying to get back to that feeling, back to them, she had nearly reached them again when Mikoto's hand fell on her face, brushing lovingly against her cheek, snapped her out of her frantic movements.

"It's not your time yet Tonbo. We'll see you again. When it's your time. They need you."

The tugging became vicious, Mikoto's hand falling from her cheek, fingertips lingering as Hari was dragged away. Her parents were dead. Gone... But Itachi, Sasuke... They were alive. They needed her...

Hari stopped fighting the pull, instead standing still as the figures of her parents became smaller and smaller. At last, before they finally disappeared into the white that had seeped into this world, Hari gave her word.

"I'll find them!"

Her mother's laughter sounded like bells, it sounded like her own laughter. Mirror images in not only looks it seemed.

"We know you will. Remember Hari, no matter what, you are loved dearly."

Then with one final tug, the world, her parents were gone and Hari's broken and limp body's, being carried by Hagrid to the courtyard of Hogwarts, heart fluttered to life with a pitter-patter.

* * *

 _~Relieved~_

"You just don't stay down do you Potter? I suppose that is Dumbledore's fault, filling your head with hopeless dreams. What neither of you seems to understand is no witch or wizard alive can defeat me! Just give in, I'll make it as painless as possible."

Hari deflected the spell Voldemort shot at her chest but shockingly dropped her wand to the floor instead of retaliating, circling a few steps before she braced her legs, both hands coming up and clasping together in a foreign movement. She had read about this but never tried it before, she didn't know whether it would work or not, but she was sure as the breeze fluttered past her, as the crowd around them added to the tension, on the tail end of that wind, she had heard her mother's voice, Mikoto's whisper one word.

Her Sharingan had been awoken by pain, by loss, by heartache and in that pain and ache, she had found strength, she had come through it stronger, faster, better. Hermione had been right. She had been living as a witch, but she was no witch, she housed no magic.

She was an Uchiha.

"Well, that's where you're wrong Tom. I'm not a witch. You picked the wrong child that night... Sharingan."

Hari's eyes morphed into the spinning wheel, twirling faster than it had ever done before, and just as Voldemort's wand began to rise, panic setting up home on his face, Hari's hands moved in a blur and she spoke the word she had heard the wind whisper.

"Susanoo!"

Her eyes began to bleed like they had all that time ago, when she had been broken and weeping on the floor. But she was no longer broken. No longer weak. The loss of her loved ones was no weakness, nothing to exploit, it was her strength, their memory gave her the power to protect others from following in their footsteps.

Fred. Pavarti. Angelina. Dean. Mad-eye. Sirius. Dobby. Lily. James. Hedwig. The countless faceless that lined the great hall.

Green Chakra flared out around her, engulfing and twirling, forming. Out of the flames, dust clouds and startled cries, stood a giant woman made of green fire, Dragonfly masquerade mask perched on a transparent face. Before Tom Riddle could utter his final words, the Chakra in human form, a giant compared to the demolished castle and people around them, swerved it's sword, a sword that eerily looked like Godric Gryffindors, slicing through Tom Riddle in one sweeping motion.

His body disintegrated, flakes drifting through the wind that had given her the answer and with one silent scream, he was gone. Dead. As the woman, her Chakra too blew away on the wind, Hari's knee's folded in on her, sending her crashing to the floor, the world fading around the edges as exhaustion dragged her into sleep.

She had won. She was alive. In that moment, she found true peace.

* * *

 _~Journey~_

It had been four months since the end of the war. Since the book on the greatest wizarding war since records began had been shut forever. Hari had paid her dues. She had helped rebuild Hogwarts. She had gone to every funeral. She had paid her condolences. Only recently turning sixteen, Hari had been through hell and back.

But she wasn't finished.

"You always did try and get away from saying goodbye. Not this time Hari."

Hari, a single bag packed, though extended through charms to hold things she just couldn't bare to leave behind and already slung over her shoulders, paused at the door of Grimmauld place, smiling as she turned to face Hermione and Ron, who were standing at the bottom of the hallway stairs, smiling too.

"I thought I had you this time."

Hermione was the first to come down, holding a bag herself, though still in Pyjamas. Ron followed.

"I know we can't come. This isn't our journey to take... But I swear Hari, if I don't hear from you within a year, hostilities or not, I'll find a way into those Elemental nations myself and hunt you down. I promise you that."

Hari chuckled heartily as she turned to hug Hermione, grip strong. She didn't know when she would next see the brunette or ginger, but she knew every day she would miss them. But Hermione was right. This was her journey and hers alone. Hermione and Ron had a life to build here, and as much as she would miss them, knowing they were happy and safe would be enough.

"Wouldn't want that now would we, the Shinobi wouldn't know what hit them."

Hermione gave a suspiciously wet chuckle as she pulled back, discreetly scrubbing at her eyes.

"Here, take this. It's only a change of clothes, some food and a few resources, but it will come in handy. You go in there dressed like that, they're going to think you're a witch. I only had the book to go by, so the clothes may be a bit wrong or out-dated but I transfigured them the best I could-"

Hermione, when emotional, fell back into lecture mode, rattling off facts faster than you could blink. So Hari cut her off, trying to wrangle in her own emotions. They had been together for so long, been at each other's backs, it almost felt wrong to leave them behind.

"Thank you, Hermione. I'm sure they're great. This isn't goodbye, I'll see you someday. You can't get rid of me that easily."

This time it was Ron that swept her up into a hug.

"I should bloody hope so Hari. Stay safe now."

Hari squeezed back before sharply pulling away, straightening herself out with a tug to her coat and a forced smile. She would not cry. Not now. She had brothers to find... A twin out there somewhere... A family that needed her.

"You too. No goodbyes. I'll see you soon."

Ron and Hermione nodded and Hari couldn't take much more. With a soft nod, Hari took the offered bag, turned and walked out the door, the click sounding like a gunshot through the night. It would be two months before her sandal-covered feet hit Elemental nation soil, two months and a week before she stood at the biggest gate she had ever seen.

Her story wasn't over... It was just beginning.

* * *

 **Next Chapter: Hari makes it to Konoha...**

 **WAIT! Please read!**

I know this chapter seems a bit pasted together, but I didn't want to stay long in the Harry Potter verse and so did Snap-shots to catch up so to speak, brushing over Harry Potters story, but adding in bits and peices. Do not worry, next chapter won't be so hashed and will have a straight narrative.

Please be kind, I have no beta, all mistakes are mine but I do try and keep it to a minimal.

 _Tonbo is Japanese for Dragonfly._

 **Pairings?**

As for pairings, some people have already voted, but I'm also going to **set up a poll on my homepage** , so if you want to pop over and **cast your vote** , you'll have **three votes** each, it would be really appreciated. If you don't want to do that, then please either leave it in a review or P.M. The poll will be closed and votes counted together by the **15th November,** so two weeks from now. So far I can tell you the votes look like this:

 **Shikamaru/Hari: 3**

 **Gaara/Hari: 1**

 **Sai/Hari: 1**

However, in the poll, I will add more candidates that I think will fit with the storyline I have at the moment.

 **Questions answered:**

 **Hari just accepting everything? Why would she do that?**

I know some of you didn't like how Hari just accepted it and agreed to fight Voldemort, but honestly, I couldn't see her just saying fuck it and running off to find her family. She had just lost Sirius, someone she loved dearly, and even in Canon, Harry had copious amounts of opportunities to just runaway and never look back, yet he never did. The point I'm trying to get across is she felt trapped, if she left, Sirius's death would mean nothing and she didn't want that to happen. It was my fault for not writing that coherently or well, for that I'm sorry and will try to do better. After all, we've got to make mistakes to learn.

 **Where is this set? Is Sasuke already out of Konoha?**

This is set after all the Harry Potter books but right at the beginning of Shippuden, just as Naruto is heading back to Konoha. Last chapter was really just a whim, something I just sat down and typed up so it wasn't really explained well. I hope this cleared some things up. I played with Hari's age a little, making her just a bit younger so she would only just having turned sixteen as she reaches Konoha, but if I wanted everything to be kept canon, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction XD

Please be patient as I work through this, as I've said I only have a shady half-baked plot so far and I'm still ironing things out and figuring where exactly I want this to go.

 **Why did you change Harry's name, wouldn't Harriet have worked?**

Well, I did this because of the meaning and where I want this to go and where Hari's going as a character. Hari in Hinduism: according to Vaishnavism, means ' to take away or remove evil and sin'. In this context, I thought it fit Hari's character rather well and where I'm taking her.

Also, Hari is related to tawny coloured animals, such as Lions, a hat tip to her Gryffindor roots and bravery.

Hari is also the name of the mythical mother of monkeys. Monkeys in Japanese culture early on were seen as sacred mediators between humans and Gods, until later on in history when they began to associate monkeys with being tricksters. I thought this was a good reverse of Hari's journey and how the wizarding world saw her. In the beginning many witches and wizards saw her as a liar and crazy person, laughing and making jokes no matter how many times she told them Voldemort had returned. Yet, later on, they rely on her to be the one to save them and end the evil, like one would if they sent a monkey to bargain to a god in their favour.

I just thought it rather fit Harry instead of going the predictable root, which I've done in my other stories, and naming her the female version of Harry which is Harriet.

 **To DLM4:**

I just want to give a quick thank you for giving me the inspiration and base for this chapter, as I was going to just do a huge time skip and have her in Konoha, but your idea sounded much better and I hoped you like my take on it.

 **Parseltongue?**

All I can say about this is it does come into play when Hari and Sasuke eventually meet up. And I hope you enjoy what I have planned for it.

 **Petunia plot hole?**

To be honest, I'm a bit confused by this. If it relates to them not being related and Lily's sacrifice that led to Hari being magically protected for sixteen years and how that works if they are not related well, I all I can say is this.

Even in the books, Petunia does not love or even like Harry, It is not petunia's love that protects Harry. Harry is placed there because its a link to Lily who was the one to love him and in turn, still falls into that whole Lily's love protecting him.

Now if you're going to argue that the protection wouldn't work if Hari wasn't related to Lily, I'm going to have to argue that. In Lily's eyes, Hari was her daughter, and is sort of adopted. Just because Hari was adopted doesn't tarnish that love at all, adoptive parents love their children just as much as biological parents. She gave her life for Hari, adopted or not, that love would still protect her like it does in the books.

So going back to Petunia not being related to Hari as a plot hole... I just don't see it. Unless you are on about why Hari was placed with Petunia in the first place, if so, that's simple. No one but Dumbledore, Lily and James knew. However, this figures into the plot I have coming up and can't really explain that much without giving spoilers.

 **A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!**

whether you favourited, reviewed, followed or simply took the time out to read this, thank you. The reviews honestly made me blush and if I could, I would hug every single one of you. However, I can't so a thank you will have to do.

As always I hoped you enjoyed this and what's to come. If you have a spare moment, please review, they get me thinking and typing. Until next time, stay beautiful!- _AlwaysEatTheRude21_


	3. A prelude in Pink

~CHAPTER THREE: A PRELUDE IN PINK.~

Sakura Haruno sighed deeply as she shuffled file after file into the numerous cabinets that were housed in the basement of Konoha's hospital. The basement was dingy at best, at worse, it was a downright death trap of dust, forgotten papers that towered to the ceiling and teetering cabinets that threatened to cause an apocalyptic avalanche at any given moment. But, she supposed, that was what you got when you put every birth record in Konoha's long history into one room and left it to turn yellow and crinkle with age. Forgotten.

It was a mundane task to be sure, one surely fitting someone of less skill than the apprentice of the fifth Hokage, but that was what one poor apprentice got when asking too many questions to an hung-over shishou in the early morning hours. Honestly, by now Sakura should have known better. Wallowing in self-pity, something even Sakura would admit she did well, still did not stop her eyes from skirting to one particular cabinet, only to force her gaze back to the task at hand.

Nothing was out of the ordinary, nothing too outlandish about the metal contraption that housed hundreds of years worth of birth certificates, a grey like all the other clones that surrounded it. That was if you did not notice or take note of the Uchiha symbol emblazoned proudly on its side. Others in its row stood with the same symbol, like little aging guardians that guarded withered paper that tracked and recorded a clan's whole history, every member, every single life that had been birthed.

But that one cabinet was the newest one, and likely the last too because of the current state of that clan. Sakura knew it held in its depths somewhere a very special birth certificate. Maybe just one peek... No. Sakura shook her head, forcing herself to stare sternly down at the pile of files in her own arms. She had no time to be reminiscing, not if she wanted to get this finished before her first shift in the bustling hospital above her head. However, the task proved to be more difficult as her eyes, seemingly of their own accord, drifted back to that damned cabinet.

How long had it been now? How long had it been since Sasuke had left her crashed on that bench, alone and cold as he turned his back on the village? How long since Naruto had followed in his footsteps, although keeping his loyalty intact, leaving her to gain more power to finally track down Sasuke and bring him back to where he belonged? How long had it been since she was left alone? Just a year, a simple twelve months, but it felt like a lifetime.

Maybe just a peek wouldn't hurt, just something to remind her that he was real and out there, a reminder that one day, another year from now or maybe more, she and Naruto would bring him back. Just a peek that would remind her of the good old days, the three of them training with Kakashi-sensei under blistering sun and falling leaves. At the end, what did patient confidentiality matter when that patient had become a rogue-nin?

Sakura had never been good at denying temptation.

With a shuffle of her eyes darting around the room, as if she was expecting Tsunade-sama to pop out behind a tower of stacked paper and shout 'Got you!', Sakura placed the folders crowding her arms onto the top of the cabinet she was currently sorting out, edged to the cabinet in question, and as if finally committed to the act, leaped into action by yanking the top drawer open, deftly fingering through names as she searched. It was in the fourth draw she finally found what she was searching for with dilated pupils, yet also, found something she had not been looking for at all.

The file was the same colour as the rest, a beige with a boldly printed name tag on top. However, unlike all the other files Sakura had been forced to re-order... It didn't house just one name.

 ** _Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Hari._**

Pulling it out, Sakura frowned as she turned her attention back to the cabinet, flicking through the draw but finding only files like the many others she had seen. One name per file.

"You shouldn't be going through those Sakura-chan. You're breaking patient confidentiality, I thought I had taught you that in the very beginning. Don't tell me we have to go back to basics?"

Sakura jumped at the voice that bloomed out of the darkness behind her, the broken light-bulb and no windows making the basement even more gloomy. Spinning around on her heel, nearly losing balance and falling into the cabinet she had been rooting through, Sakura pressed the file close to her chest, as if the flimsy card and paper could guard her against the woman standing in front of her. A mountain didn't stand a chance, what would a slip of paper do?

"Tsunade-sama... I was just... I was going to..."

Sighing and relaxing her tense form, Sakura sheepishly brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, giving up the death grip she had on the file. There was no point in lying, Tsunade could always tell. Thankfully, Tsunade saved her from any more mortification when she strolled forward, a small smile on her lips as she spoke.

"I know you miss him Sakura, that's okay, but some things... Some things are just not for you to look through."

When all Sakura did was pull the file away from her chest and stare down at it, eyebrows puckered and fixed in concentration, Tsunade sighed deeply before walking to an overturned crate, taking a seat as she primly crossed her legs and stared intently at her apprentice.

"If you are going to question something, at least say it out loud so it can be answered."

Sakura finally tore her gaze away from the folder to look at Tsunade, hands still tightly grasped at the file, nearly bending it under the pressure of her gloved hands.

"Why does this file have two names? All the others have just one."

Tsunade nodded as if she had expected just that question, reached beside her to the spare space and patted it, offering Sakura a seat. Sakura didn't hesitate to take it, nearly mirroring her shishou's posture.

"Open it."

Sakura's fingers shook slightly as she hesitantly did what she had been itching to do, flicking the file open and soaking in the words written, as well as the small photo held to the file with a rusting paper clip. The photo was barely the size of Sakura's palm, and if she did not have the file to back up the photo, she would have believed it to be somebody else entirely, despite the prominent colouring that Sakura knew all too well. A colouring Sakura had spent most of her academy days admiring from afar.

Two newborns were swaddled together, though both had broken free from their restraint, one baby, a boy... Sasuke had fought his hand into the other babies hair, curly even at this young age, in the throws of tugging it closer and closer to himself, the other baby in turn had done the same movement, almost like there was a mirror between them, reflecting and copying. They had pulled each other so close that their foreheads were pressed neatly against the others, forming, if you squinted your eyes, a love heart with the way the blanket criss-crossed over their lower, chubby bodies. If not for the closed eyes, flushed cheeks and obvious state of sleeping, Sakura would have believed the two babies to have been hurting one another by the tight grip.

She couldn't stop the rush she felt to read the words printed on the page, nor the gallop her heart had begun to take, growing wider eyed by the second, finishing the page only to start all over again, sure she had read it wrong. After heart rendering silence, Sakura's voice, higher pitched than normal and with more than a hint of panic, spluttered out into the air.

"Twins... How... When... Why... How?"

Had it been tampered with? Was this some form of sick joke? Sakura knew Sasuke, she knew him... If he had a twin, she would have known! Naruto would have known! But when the soft, freshly nail-polished hand of her shishou softly landed on her shoulder blade, when with frantic eyes she looked to her teacher and saw nothing but pity mixed with honesty, Sakura was hit with the truth of it all. Why had no one told her? No. This had to be a lie. An elaborate prank.

"I know what your thinking and don't. It's true, I should know, I was the medic on call when Uchiha Mikoto gave birth. It was one of my first rota's too and it put me through the ringer. Even after all these years, I haven't quite played witness to a birth like it. We thought it was just a normal birth in the beginning, even Fugaku and Mikoto hadn't suspected twins, having only picked one name out. You know how rare twins are Sakura-chan. Sasuke had breached you see, came out feet first. When he eventually did come out, we thought it was all over. I remember trying to pick him up to hand over to get washed and cleaned, only he was holding on to something. It was only later, when the contractions started again and Sasuke wouldn't let go, that the other baby made an appearance and we found out what Sasuke had been holding onto so tightly. His little sister's ankle. Even in the throws of being birthed, he refused to let go of her. In the end, they settled for the name Hari. I drank myself silly that night."

Sakura bustled and flared with indignation, even as Tsunade's tone turned wistful and lost in remembrance of times long passed. Why was she only learning of this now? Why had no one told her? Why had Sasuke not told her? He had a sister, a younger sister and no one had thought that it was important to tell his team-mates?

"Why did no one tell me?"

Sakura's question came out more like a demand than anything else, childish even to her own ears, due to the building anger bubbling in her gut. However, that fire was quickly put out when faced with her shishou's hardened eyes.

"It was not our story to tell. It's Sasuke-san's life Sakura, just because you feel like you deserve to know, doesn't mean you actually do. Remember that. Tell me, when has Sasuke ever spoken about his family to you, to Naruto willingly? And not just his thirst for Itachi's death? I didn't think so. Old wounds hurt us the most."

Shame washed over Sakura like a tidal wave. Tsunade was right. She had spent all of her academy life, and regretfully a long time after, trying to find everything out about Sasuke, yet she had never actually sat down and asked him. Actually... She hadn't asked him much, simply made her own judgements from observations and labelled it as fact. Had she ever really known him? Sakura shook her head. No. She had known him, maybe not everything, maybe not the most important parts of him, but she had known some of him. That had to count for something. The hand at her back fell away. Still, curiosity burned brightly in her mind at this new revelation.

"Is she... Is Hari-san dead? Is that why he never told me and Naruto? Did she die in the massacre too?"

Tsunade sighed and rolled her shoulders, working out the kinks that their cramped little alcove caused as she reached down beside her, at the back of the crate and pulled out a sake bottle and a little cup. To be completely honest, Sakura wasn't a bit surprised at this turn, she had suspected her shishou had a stash in every room in the hospital for quite a while now. The bottle popped as Tsunade opened it, poured a drink, downed it in one, only to pour another and start a cycle that looked to be endless.

"A long time ago, visitors from another country, another world some say, came to our nations. U~izādo, though, they called themselves wizards. It was a peaceful and seemingly prosperous meeting for both us and them in the beginning, an exchange of information really. Until that is, they tried converting us to their ways, when they began demanding things from us we had no hope to give. Things we couldn't give. After a rather vicious battle, they promised to leave, it was only a shame our elders couldn't see the gleam in their eyes. When they did leave, they abducted many children, one from each prominent clan that had engaged with them at some point. The Senju, Uzumaki, Nara, Hyuuga and Uchiha clans were the only ones left intact, the three having declined from the beginning, warning the others not to trust nor deal with the U~izādo. They searched but could never find the children. Time carried on and as the years ticked by, upon the anniversary of the abduction, the U~izādo sent back bits of the children to their respective clans... When I say bits, I mean bits Sakura. It was a very dark time in our history, until finally, upon the sixth year, for daring to turn the U~izādo down, they finally sent each child's head home. The message was clear. We banned all contact, any visiting, coming and going, everything."

Sakura winced as her gut churned violently at the vivid images the story had sprung to her closed eyelids. She was a shinobi and as a shinobi, she was used to the harsher ways of life. Yet children, when it came to innocent children, she could never get over the brutality. The world could be a dark, dark place indeed. Even darker than she had originally believed with these... U~izādo lurking in the shadows. But how did it all fraction into the topic they were talking about? Tsunade-sama had said it was a long time ago, and having barred all contact, looking like it was successful with Sakura just finding out about these beings, what did this have to do with anything?

"What does this have to do with Sasuke-kun's twin... With this Hari-san?"

Tsunade's face turned grim, lips thinning, eyes growing distant, fingers clenching around her sake cup as she stared resolutely into the liquid as if it could give her all the answers. Dread filtered through Sakura like breeze would, raising the hairs on the back of her neck, goosebumps pimpling her flesh. Tsunade-sama rarely grew grim, but when she did, Sakura found it to be one of the most frightening sights to behold.

"Uchiha Hari didn't die Sakura-chan. She disappeared. On the night she was abducted, for it was an abduction despite what those insipid elders sprout, an U~izādo was spotted on the outskirts of the Uchiha compound an hour before it took place. I don't believe in coincidences Sakura, and neither do you I believe. The very night she was taken, the elders decreed it was too dangerous to follow, even though they argued until they were blue in the face that it was no U~izādo who had been the culprit, not listening to the many accounts from shinobi and civilians alike that one had been seen. Hari and Sasuke Uchiha had only just celebrated their first birthday. The rest is history. Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha were left to grieve over a child with no grave."

Sakura mulled over the overload of information her shishou had given her. However... Something just didn't click, didn't feel right, her gut telling her there was more to the story, more than maybe even Tsunade-sama knew about. Since she had begun training, her first lesson, the one that stuck with her most was always trusting her gut. Right now? Right now her gut was screaming at the wrongness that tinged the stories edges.

However, what that wrong thing was, was not apparent.

In the grand scheme of things, with all but two Uchiha dead and gone, one soon to follow if Sasuke got his way, this Hari's death did not equate to anything big. Just another lost or dead Uchiha, another loss that had pushed Sasuke to the lengths he was all too willing to go, another wedge that pushed him further away from the village, away from her. Did he know he had a twin at one point? Did he know the village banned any rescue attempts? If he did, his originally sudden turn of distrust against the village, how he refused to ask the elders or Hokage for help didn't seem all that sudden.

"So you think Hari-san is gone? That she is dead, having been taken to send a message to the Uchiha for not negotiating with them when they came?"

The words didn't fit right on her tongue, even as she spoke them. It was like someone had put the wrong jigsaw piece in place only to tell her that that was where it belonged. If the U~izādo was spotted a full hour before the abduction, how did it get through and into the compound? With a threat so close to home, the Uchiha would have geared up and got ready, having not known why the U~izādo was there... Which left only one outcome that made any lick of sense to Sakura. The U~izādo had inside help. Inside help from the Uchiha, inside help that had say and sway on the Elders council. Someone had handed over the baby. By Tsunade-sama's humourless laugh that crackled roughly through the air, Sakura had come to the same conclusion she had about the whole ordeal.

"No, I don't believe she was taken in the dead of the night by a single U~izādo with no help. Neither do I think she was taken to send a message to the Uchiha. The original children were returned in six years, fourteen have passed now with no sign of her. Think Sakura, what do people want from the Uchiha? What do other Uchiha's want from other Uchiha's?"

Sakura's gut sank like it was made from lead.

"Their eyes. You think they took her for her eyes? Why would anybody, let alone another Uchiha do that? Giving an enemy your greatest weapon, the secrets of that weapon... It makes no sense."

Tsunade gave a sharp nod, her bangs fluttering against her cheek and Sakura could have sworn, as she tipped and sipped the last of her sake, that the seal on her forehead glinted dangerously in the dim light.

"I don't think it was an Uchiha who helped, no, you're right in that. It makes no sense. However, someone who coveted that knowledge, who knew the landscape of the compound, an elder... Well, I have my theories and suspicions that are best not spoken in open areas, nor are for your ears. You said the answer yourself Sakura. A weapon. Maybe the U~izādo were in their own war, maybe they were losing and had gotten desperate enough, who knows? But what I am sure of is this, there would be only one use for Uchiha Hari, either way, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that Hari-san was taken to be a weapon, god knows what happened after. Death likely. She was young when she was taken, just a year old, it would be un-probable she ever knew about her family, or where she had came from. Even if she was alive, if, which is unlikely, do you think Sasuke-san would change his mind, come home and everything would be sunshine and roses? For a twin he has not seen in fourteen years? This ghost will not help bring Sasuke back Sakura, I'd wipe that from my mind if I was you. It's just another sad story in our long history."

No. Sakura didn't believe that, not for one moment. Maybe it was down to her shishou not knowing Sasuke like she did, maybe she was just deluding herself, but Sakura knew Sasuke. She knew him. Knew what pushed him to abandon his village, knew what his goal was, knew what kept him going each day. She knew why he hunted down Itachi like a rabid dog, because Itachi had taken the one thing he wanted most away from him.

Family.

Maybe, just maybe, she could see this because she came from a civilian home, filled with love and laughter, and not from a clan. Being raised in a clan, pressure was put on from an early age. Duty. Honour. Village pride. They all were droned into the heads of impressionable children. But family, family was the root of it all, the trunk to the great tree. The same thing that made Sasuke do what he was doing.

And twins, well, as rare as they were among her people, civilians too, perhaps Hari-san held that same core drive. They were made from the same Chakra after all, grew in the same womb at the same time, dammit, according to Tsunade, Sasuke had dragged his sister into the world and didn't let go even after his own birth.

If Hari-san was alive, if she ever found out, she would come looking. Sakura knew it. For if Sakura was in her shoes, she would do the same. Surely if she was dead, the U~izādo would have sent her back, maybe in pieces like they had done to all the other children? Despite the sad twists and turns of the story, despite the probability, there was one thing missing that all stories had.

An ending.

And that... That alone gave Sakura hope because in this dim and dank basement, breathing in dust and the stinging smell of sake, staring down at the photo of the two babies, idly running her fingers over the glossy front. This Uchiha Hari could be, was, would be, maybe, the key to bringing Sasuke back home. Sakura only had one question left.

"Does Sasuke-kun know about her? Does he know he has... Had a twin?"

Tsunade went to pour herself another glass, only to pour out air and a single drop, sighing forlornly at the lack of sake she found herself in. The bottle and cup mad a clink as Tsunade stashed them back into the little hole they came from.

"Yes. His family never forgot about her, never gave up hope that one day, against the odds, she would come walking through the compound gates. You're not the first person I've had to have this conversation with you know, I had it with Hatake Kakashi when he was still training Sasuke-san. To be honest, you've taken it a lot better than he had. One day, after training, Sasuke had spoken about her. Only once from my knowledge, and I don't know the full conversation, only snit-bits Kakashi-san had informed me of later. Sasuke-san had told him that it felt like he had lost a limb, a constant ghost just over his shoulder, a ghost he would sometimes find himself turning towards to speak to, only to find nothing. I suppose twins are like that, the bond, its hard to break, even when one is dead or missing. I had seen them once, at a check up for the after birth care, they seemed joined at the hip, squawking and screaming when separated even for the briefest of moments. But Sakura-chan, Hari is gone. Dead. She is not coming back. Now, enough of this. You have work to complete and I have another bottle to hunt down."

As Tsunade slapped her thighs and began to stand, Sakura jolted up, politely bowing her head.

"Hai, shishou!"

Tsunade gave her a soft nod accompanied by an indulgent smile before sweeping out of the basement, leaving Sakura to scuttle back to work with more gusto than she had felt before. She had seen Sasuke do just what Tsunade had said, in those little breaks where he thought no one was watching, the distant look in his eyes as his mouth opened just a sliver, his head turning a fraction before he stalled and everything clammed up and he returned to that stoic stare. Now she knew why.

Uchiha Hari might be gone, but dead? Sakura didn't think so. If there was one thing she knew about the Uchiha, especially Sasuke's family, was they were difficult bastards, almost intensely stubborn and very hard to kill.

If Hari was alive, she would be back... Back to find a family broken and shattered, but back to a family not completely gone. Uchiha Hari was the key to finally bring Sasuke back from the dark edge he was currently dangling over, hopefully without bloodshed. Sasuke wanted a family, and even if shishou and everyone else didn't believe that was possible, even if they thought Sasuke was too far gone, Sakura now knew differently.

Sasuke had come into this world dragging his sister into it by her foot, and if need be, Sakura was sure this Hari would drag Sasuke back home, back into the light by his foot, wailing if need be. Love was a powerful thing and there weren't much that was purer than a bond between siblings.

A bond between twins.

Later that night, exhausted after her shift, wandering in the dead and dusk, Sakura snuck into the Uchiha compound, making her way to Sasuke's house, hand written scroll hidden in her pocket, a single name shakily written on the front. It was a foolish plan, a desperate act of a desperate friend, but it was a chance. If there was any chance at all, any, even minuscule to get Sasuke back home, Sakura would take it without a blink of an eye.

Breaking into the desolate house she had located after an hour of walking through the oppressive and sullenly silent complex, Sakura searched for the best spot. After a half hour of trawling through nick-nacks and boxes, Sakura found it. In the living room, on a shelving unit stood photo's in dusty frames, and among these little shots of a once happy family stood the very same photo Sakura had seen in the file. Dusting off the glass protecting the photo, placing the scroll in front of it neatly, name tag staring out for all to see, Sakura went back home with a heavy heart but light spirit, the words she had written on the scroll playing tauntingly around her mind, like the lyrics of a song she couldn't shake.

 _Hello, Uchiha-san_

 _if you're looking for your brother Sasuke, if you're alive and ever manage to read this and mean no harm, please come and find me. Ask for me at the Hokage's office. I need your help._

 _Haruno Sakura._

It wouldn't be until a year and a half later before it was found. A year in which Sakura had nearly forgotten about the whole ordeal, a year in which she had given up hope, thinking her shishou had been right all along. But really, she should have seen it coming.

After all, Hari loved proving people wrong.

* * *

 _~One year, six months later~_

Time had eased the pain of the absence of her team-mates, but that wound had never fully healed. In fact, with Naruto's imminent arrival due any day now, it felt like someone had re-opened it with a pair of rusty forceps. The town was abuzz with speculation, an undercurrent of excitement simmering through the city that lit up the faces of those who knew who was coming back.

In the years that had passed, Sakura had grown steady under Tsunade-sama's tutelage, although she had also picked up her mentor's notorious temper. All in all, it had been a peaceful few years, a time of prosperity in her village, a time to heal and rebuild and re-strengthen. A time to grow. But now, in the face of Naruto's return, she felt like a genin all over again, self-conscious, weak, unworthy to stand by his or Sasuke's side. She wondered how powerful they had become, without her holding them back. Sakura shook her head violently. No. That was the thirteen-year-old her speaking, taunting, haunting.

That morning, sitting in Tsunade's office, beheld with a stern face, determined, next to Kakashi-sensei of all people who was lounging on the couch, his iconic book for once missing from the scene, with Shizune standing at the side of the Hokage's desk, as grim of face as Tsunade, Sakura knew something was happening and it had nothing to do with Naruto's return. When all was silent, when Sakura was sure that very silence would eat her alive with worry and anticipation, did Tsunade finally speak.

"What is said in this office right now stays between us. Do you all understand? If you can't except that, there's the door. Leave now."

There was no room for arguments or disagreements. Sakura's heart began a steady increase in her ribcage, especially when Kakashi, normally so laid back and easy going, straightened up and stood up, hands jammed into the depths of his trouser pockets, directly facing Tsunade as he nodded sharply.

Only when all eyes turned to her, gulping at the sudden burst of attention she had garnered, did Sakura give her own shaky and less sure nod. However, it seemed good enough as Tsunade placed her elbows on her polished desk, fingers interloping and locking, pressed underneath her chin. Sakura had seen that look before, when Tsunade gambled, the same look she got when she felt like she was losing but refused to fold. This was a bad omen indeed. Subconsciously, Sakura's hands folded together in her lap, hiding the tremble they had taken on.

"Today at exactly nine-sixteen this morning a Chakra was felt at Konoha's gate. It breached the city before disappearing entirely, leaving no trace to track. It was a powerful one at that, one that should have been easy to locate and capture. I've already questioned the gate guards who swear no-one has come through the gates today, especially a shinobi of the level we are expecting with a Chakra signature like we felt."

Sakura's breath staggered in her lungs, turning to thick and moist fog, blocking her airway. Were they under attack? Now of all times? With Naruto due back any day, it would be the opportune moment. But no, if they were under attack, or Tsunade-sama suspected such, Anbu would be patrolling the border, shinobi would be drafted in for enforcements. None of that had happened. More importantly, not only her and Kakashi would be dragged into the Hokage's office and briefed. And with just a single signature spotted, that hardly spoke of a village-wide attack, no matter how big it felt. So what the hell was going on? This time it was Kakashi who spoke, words even but tinged with something... Other. Something other that spoke of battles, blood and war.

"You think someone has sent a scout in to do recon? Or simply testing out our strength?"

Tsunade's golden hair fluttered around her pretty face as she shook her head, still staring pointedly ahead, to an imaginary spot on the wall. Underneath her clasped hands, Sakura's fingers wound themselves into her skirt. If someone was doing recon in the village, that meant an attack was planned. Kami, had she ever wished so hard for Naruto to be beside her with his cheerful nature, easing the tension threatening to tear at her muscles, stiffening her spine into an iron rod in the wooden chair she was perched in.

"Neither. I felt the Chakra myself and fortunately, so did a few off-duty Anbu who were in the vicinity at the time. Anbu who had previously worked with one...Itachi Uchiha."

The world swam and then focused on a pin-prick at the name that was brought up so reservedly, hushed, whispered, like a child saying a dirty word. Was he... Was that psychopath in Konoha? Had he come for Naruto... Had he won against Sasuke? Sakura's heart nearly beat so fast that it jack-hammered right out of her chest, mushing lungs and bone under the pounding strength, the noise blaring in her ears. She really couldn't contain her wretched outburst.

"You think Uchiha Itachi has breached the city?!"

Tsunade shot her a sharp look, one that stopped Sakura from jumping up from her seat, tempering her. Sakura hid her grimace quite well, under the watchful eyes of Tsunade. She knew better than to let her emotions get the better of her, or at least, she should at this point. Losing your emotions could lead you to lose a team-mate, that was what Tsunade had told her while they had trained. Yet, with the worry of Naruto's arrival, the stress of trying to get stronger, trying to keep up with her team-mates, and now this, her nerves were frayed and sensitive, just waiting for a single touch to light up. Sakura adamantly stamped out anything but what they were talking about from her mind. She needed to focus. She was a shinobi, it was time she started acting like it.

"No, at the beginning I did. What with Naruto-san due back any day now, it would be the perfect time for Akatsuki to perform an extraction right before he could enter the village. But I felt it myself, and while similar, it didn't quite match, another Uchiha however..."

Sakura's heart palpitated to a stop, her blood turned to ice in her veins, the world seemed to vibrant, the humming in her ears reached a crescendo. No... After all this time, surely not? He wouldn't just walk into the village, would he? As if nothing had happened. As if he had not deserted them all. As if he wasn't a known Konohagakure traitor. Yet, despite all this, Sakura hoped, prayed, breathed that it would be him. That he had come home. That he had come back to her. Naruto would come home and all would be well, they would be a team again. Sakura bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper on her tongue. Life was never that kind. Never that easy. Kakashi's words only stoked that fire of hope and dreams that had bubbled in her chest to roaring life.

"If it's not Itachi's, yet feels similar... That means there's an Uchiha in Konoha right now, an Uchiha related to Itachi, closely related by the familiarity of it."

Tsunade nodded again, her hair falling over her eyes and curtaining them off from the rest of the world. Families, especially from clans, housed similarly chakras, siblings being the closest in feel and description. It was an easy way to tell who was related to who within a clan. If it felt close to Itachi's, that only meant one thing, one thing Sakura had dared not hope for in such a long time. Her chair obnoxiously scraped against the wooden floor as she pushed it back and walked over to Tsunade's desk, gloved fists behind her back, hiding the shake they had taken on.

"Is it... Is Sasuke-kun back?"

That candle of hope burning bright and hot in her chest was snuffed out when Tsunade pushed her hair out of her eyes, brown clashing with green, hope clashing with pity and regret. Sakura fought back the mist that wanted to cover her eyes and obscure the world, blinking rapidly. Instead she straightened up, put her hands on her hips and locked away all emotion. Emotion could come in the dead of the night, when no one was there to witness her crack and break.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan, but I do not believe so, not now after thinking it over. While similar to his, eerily so, there was just... Something off with it. Not wrong, but different. Something... Airy and light."

That candles light was well and truly dead now. Gone forever. Still, Sakura picked up her broken hope from the harsh floor that was reality. It may not be him this time, but sometime, she swore it, he would come walking through those gates with her and Naruto at his back. The way it should have always been. While Sakura scrambled to gain composure, though she never lost her front, Kakashi filled in the void around them.

"That means if it's not Itachi or Sasuke, yet feels the same as the latter... Knowing Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto are dead... You don't think? After all this time?"

In a burst of revelation, Sakura now knew why it was only her and Kakashi called into the office. They were the only two, apart from Tsunade, who knew the truth, a long-buried story lost over time and other heartaches. But... Now? Even Sakura, who after first hearing the story, holding onto such a childish hope, now grew cold against it. What were the chances? probably the same as Sasuke willingly walking back through those gates again. Tsunade pulled her hands away from her chin, picking up a wad of paper at her right, flicking through them with a proficiency that was hard to find, stopping at one statement as she scanned it with alert eyes. Sakura felt like she was caught in a whirlwind of rising and falling emotions, as confusing as they were potent.

"Teuchi-san, who was running a delivery at the time, came into my office about an hour after the incident, as white as a ghost. After I managed to calm him down, he told me he was questioned by a woman about the whereabouts of the Uchiha compound. Upon first seeing the woman, at a bit of a distance, he had believed it to be Sasuke, until she got closer, when he thought it was Mikoto. It was only until she got close enough and asked him for directions that he noticed it was neither. Hatake-san... He said the woman had green eyes. There's only one written record of a single Uchiha with green eyes and we both know who it is. It would explain the nearly identical chakra to Sasuke-san, the similar chakra to Itachi, it would explain the flare we felt and the disappearance, if she is anything like her brothers. It also explains why she is looking for the Uchiha compound."

If siblings had resounding and similar Chakra... Then twins would likely have nearly identical, having both shared the womb, chakra's blending into one another. Could it be? Sakura was taken back to that night over a year ago, the night she had left the scroll behind in an act of mindless and unfathomable hope that it could work. That something good would come from the chance she had taken. Even as Kakashi began to speak, Sakura was lost in the whirlpool her mind had taken her on, one thing repeating in her head, like an echo, growing fainter the longer it went on.

Uchiha Hari was alive... And here.

"But surely she is dead by now? The U~Izaido aren't known for their giving nature when it comes to our people. The original children barely lasted five years in their care... What are the chances a lone one would survive fifteen? Especially because we know why she was taken?"

Tsunade huffed and went to speak, only for three consecutive bangs to ring out from her office door. As soon as the last one rang out, forcing the inhabitants of the room to look towards the office entrance, the door slid open and a cheery, bespectacled woman's face popped through, grin wide and welcoming. Mai-lee, the secretary.

"Excuse me, there's a woman here to see you."

Tsunade waved her hand in front of her face as if batting away a fly. By the flicker of Kakashi's eyes to Sakura's direction, she wasn't the only one to have picked up that Mai-lee wasn't addressing the Hokage, not, by the way Mai-lee was intently looking at her.

"Tell them to wait their turn, I'm busy here-"

the reason Mai-lee had been secretary for so long was her no-nonsense attitude and her straight to the point mannerism. Although, still, Mai-lee had to have some gumption to cut off the Hokage without so much as a bat of an eyelash.

"Not for you Hokage-sama, but for Sakura-chan."

That seemed to take the steam out of Tsunade's mumbling of impatient citizens as her eyebrows raised and her gaze slowly turned to Sakura. Before Tsunade or anyone else could speak, could refuse entrance, as if in a trance, Sakura answered Mai-lee. It couldn't be... She had given up hope. Perhaps they wouldn't need to hunt Hari down, like Tsunade had obviously been on the verge of discussing, not if who Sakura thought stood on the other side of that door. Life... Life just wasn't this easy. She had to have gotten it wrong.

"Send her in."

Mai-lee gave a single nod before disappearing behind the door, right before Tsunade began to bustle and argue.

"Sakura-chan now is not the time for personal check-ups-"

The squeak of the door opening cut Tsunade off, everything, even the tweeting birds outside singing their songs, turned silent as one sandal-clad foot was followed by another, before the visitor had come into the room, freezing them all in place. It seemed no one dared breath as the visitor made themselves visible.

For one harrowing second, before logic could catch up to optical nerve, Sakura truly believed it was Sasuke walking towards her, dressed in calf high sandals, tight black pants, armless black turtle-neck. The only splash of colour in the garb was the tantalizingly dark wrap at the waist that looked like a skirt, longer on one side than the other, Uchiha symbol stitched at the bottom plate, next to another symbol Sakura had never seen before, a line in a circle in a triangle. A sword was strapped to their back, silver and glinting, but not as bright as the ruby encrusted handle, shaped like nothing she had seen before. A bandage was wrapped around their forehead, like one would with a village forehead protector, bangs falling just like Sasuke's had. Did.

It was the same pale, clear complexion, porcelain against midnight hair. The same feline features that were as streamlined as they were regal. The same long, leaned limb and tall figure. Well, how she pictured him to be now, aged and grown. But tragically, the differences then made themselves known.

The curl to the similarly messy blue-black hair, loose and free to swish at the thin waist, brushed over one shoulder, out of the way of the person's sword. The softness where Sakura had pictured Sasuke to now have rigid lines. The breasts and rounded hips were also a dead give-away, so was the dusky blush on swerved cheek, the twinkle in emerald eyes, but most of all, the warm smile gracing their face. A woman's face. Sasuke had never smiled like that.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Sakura felt like her mind had momentarily left her when she realized the tapping was footsteps as this strange woman walked towards her, stopping close enough the woman could reach out and grab her if she wished. To be frank, she might need to be grabbed, she felt like her knees were about to give way. She kept seeing Sasuke in front of her, only for the reality to crackle through and show her the woman, like flicking through a picture book that only had two photos.

A hand came into her vision, just at the bottom, drawing her wide-eyed gaze. A bandaged hand, holding a scroll that still had a bit of dust cloying at its ridge, seal broken and read, the woman's delicate hand that had the same long and thin fingers Sasuke's had, holding it out for Sakura to take. Sakura didn't think she could breathe, let alone move to take it.

The woman's voice was airy when she spoke, taking the scroll back when Sakura made no move to grab it, turning to speak to the inhabitants in the room. It was light but husky at the edges, another feminine turn to Sasuke, sounding so similar yet so different it simultaneously made Sakura want to cry and laugh. To say thank you and piss off. To look and turn away. She felt dizzy. Very, very dizzy. It was Sasuke, yet it wasn't.

"Are you Haruno Sakura? You told me to come find you... I think we need to talk. Now, does anyone want to tell me why the Uchiha compound is empty and where the bloody hell my brothers are?"

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Hari's journey to Konoha, people have some explaining to do and Hari finds out exactly just what has happened to her brothers...

 **A.N:** Well, did you like it? I know it wasn't that interesting and only had a tiny amount of Hari in it, but I wanted some more back-story laid out with a few hints put in for the plot that is to come. Next chapter is completely from Hari's perspective, so I hope you are looking forward to it. I won't have many other characters P.O.V in here, but I just thought it fit well this one time.

Remember, I have no beta and I do this for enjoyment, so please be kind on the mistakes that may have slipped through. I do check my work, but I'm sure a few have slipped by. I will eventually go back and right the wrongs, when I have the spare time.

 **Questions answered:**

 **Will the effects of Mangekyo Sharingan appear, and how will Hari deal with it?**

I can't give too much away, but yes they will appear. As to how Hari deals with this, including Itachi's own blindness, well... Spoilers!

 **Isn't it dangerous in Konoha for Hari, especially with Danzo hanging around?**

Short answer? Yes. Long one? It comes into the plot I've conjured up, there was hints of it and Danzo's involvement this chapter, though most of you have likely picked that up XD. All I can say without giving too much away is Konoha isn't what Hari pictured. Not at all.

 **Will Hari knock some sense into her brothers?**

Yet again, sorry, but I can't say much without ruining the story. I can say she does rip into a certain brother, after their first meeting... Or re-meeting. The way I see it, even in canon, Hari holds four traits above all else. Loyalty, friendship, family and love. And a certain brother (I think you can all guess) has torn that, stomped on it and spat at it respectively. That isn't going to sit well with her.

 **Pairings?**

If I haven't listed your pairing in the poll, or even if you want a fem/fem pairing or a threesome pairing, then leave it in a review or P.M, I put the most popular ones, the ones already suggested in the poll, but all will still be counted. Go wild, I honestly want to hear from you guys!

 **Pairing Poll so far:**

Gaara/Hari- 56

Shikamaru/Hari- 56

Kakashi/Hari- 43

Naruto/Hari- 38

Neji/Hari-27

Shino/Hari- 15

Sai/Hari- 14

Sasori/Hari- 8

Deidara/Hari- 7

Kiba/Hari- 5

Suigetsu /Hari- 1

Kisame/Hari-1

As you can see, Gaara and Shikamaru are neck and neck at the moment, so please vote if you haven't.

 **A WORD TO ALL READERS:**

I can't say a thank you big enough. Really. All your kind words, your advice, the response, everything, has been really heart warming. You guys are the reason I post this madness and not just hide it in the deep depths of my laptop. So a huge thank you to all those who favourited, followed and even bigger thank you to those who reviewed.

As always, if you have a spare moment, pop over to that box down there and please leave a review, they are greatly appreciated. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and until next time, stay beautiful- _AlwaysEatTheRude21_


	4. One Condition

_...Tonbo... Tonbo... Tonbo..._

Hari blinked into awareness like a baby fawn would, bleary eyed and reluctantly. She was having those dreams again, hazy summer dreams of soft voices, laughter, hers, someone else's, giggles, open ponds and dancing dragonflies, chubby hands reaching for the jewel coloured insects, only to be picked up and pulled away by a smiling boy who always flicked her nose affectionately, tickled her belly, calling her Tonbo as he hugged her close and walked away from the pond. The hole in her chest when she inevitably awoken throbbed harder each time.

The culprit of pulling her from her cherished dream-scape this time? The tweeting of a bluebird up in the foliage of the giant tree she had been sleeping under. She had done it, she had arrived at Konoha in one piece. Well, not Konoha, but the land of fire which Konoha was housed in. It took her a while to get there, a week of planning in Japan and five full days of constant rowing from a rickety boat that was hardly bigger than a canoe, but she had done it.

At the time, arriving in Japan, she didn't dare ask for help, knowing the hostilities and still ex-communication held between the two races, it was up to Hari to get herself there lest she wanted to be stopped before she even began her search. So get there she did, numb and tingling, sore in all the wrong places, sweat drenched and covered in sea-salt, she had docked upon the rocky shores and made for the tree line, collapsing against the nearest and safest looking tree to sleep her pains and aches away, ready for a brand new day.

She hadn't taken much with her, just the clothes Hermione had made for her, the same black armless turtle-neck, the same trousers that fit more like leggings, the same sandals from that land of dead where she had seen her parents, but instead of a silver vest, she had a deep red wrap around skirt, two symbols emblazoned on the bottom hem that Hermione had lovingly placed on. A memento. A reminder. A promise. The past and future clashing clandestine together.

The deathly hallows, reminding Hari of her friends, the pain, the love, the loss but also her insurmountable victory, a reminder of where she had come from and who she was, her past. By its side proudly stood the Uchiha fan, a promise of family, hope, laughter, her future she so verdantly wanted and the woman she would become. That little gesture had meant more to Hari than she could verbally or comfortably communicate.

Hermione, bless her and all her foresight, had also given her something Hari had desperately needed. Two innocuous looking leather cuff bracelets. However, they did what she still couldn't, no matter how hard she tried. Suppress her Chakra signature. The book didn't go into much detail about the state of the Elemental nations, but it did raise a few alarms bells. Wars, rogue-nins, bounty hunters, the list was too large to feel relaxed. Going around with your Chakra signature out was the wrong thing to do, and seen as Hari couldn't lower it herself, Hermione had made something that had. To keep her safe. The only downside was Hari had barely enough Chakra left while wearing them to run, let alone anything else. But the risk was worth it if it meant not getting caught up in another war, or ambushed by a misguided felon.

She had also packed her book that had gotten her this far, a charmed hip pouch that had been extended to carry all her things, a photo album consisting of her friends, Sirius, Remus, Lily and James, some food, a first aid kit and the photo of her family that she kept folded and pressed to her chest in a hidden pocket in her shirt. What she hadn't packed, though, yet still mysteriously appeared at the bottom of her pouch with an ominous sentence written in a hand she did not know, on unsigned, unscented and untraceable parchment, attached was Gryffindor's sword.

 _This belongs to you, you're going to need it._

Still, Hari didn't complain as she pulled out a roll of gauze from her first aid pack, bounding her forehead and hand thickly. Scars got you noticed, you could track people from a scar and all Hari wanted to do was travel in peace. When seven am hit, and she packed up that sunny morn, temperature steadily rising despite it only being early morning and began her long journey, she held no doubt, with her luck, she would need Gryffindor's sword eventually.

The more peaceful her travels, the faster she would go, the faster she could go, the closer she got to her brothers quicker, a tiny anecdote and hazardous map in her book the only thing guiding her. She knew the Uchiha lived in a place called Konohagakure, or Konoha for short, it was hidden in the leaves, whatever that meant, and was in the land of fire, which she was currently on the edge of... If she had navigated the sea right.

That first day, Hari hardly stayed still, choosing to run as much as she could before slowing when the sun started to descend and the moon took its place, casting the emerald leaves that hung in a thick canopy above her head in a sprinkle of silver hue. She would admit while her body was focused on moving, her mind was locked on to the tangible meeting Hari had only dreamed fondly of before Voldemort's demise.

It seemed so close now, too close almost. It set her on edge, wrung to life long thought of dead nerves, static taking up pace in her blood. Would they recognize her? Did they even remember her? Would she be greeted like she hoped she would be, with smiles and warmth or frowns and a slammed door? Would she be greeted at all? Fifteen years was a long time, a very long time for something bad to have happened.

However, that night, as she laid beneath another tree, the seemingly only living thing in miles, staring up at the starry night through a break in its branches and leaves, gave Hari that little wedge of peace and confidence she couldn't find in sun-rays and blue skies. For, as she lay there, breathing, alive, watching those little bursts of starlight dance and glow, she knew somewhere, on this very land, her brothers were standing beneath the same sky and perhaps, just maybe, staring at the very same star she was. Welcomes and greetings didn't matter when looking at the bigger picture. She had family that was alive, who according to her parents, needed her help.

Minutes turned into hours, hours turned into days, days turned into weeks and as with all things, time carried on its rightful course. Before Hari knew it, she had been travelling across the land of fire for two and a half weeks, zig-zagging as she went, hoping to find that green wooden gate under a stone arch that was painted in her book, the one thing that would tell her she had made it.

By this time, Hari had set up a routine of sorts, consisting of running and searching, rest, eating, pouring over her book, practising with her sword against imposing tree's, training her body to get faster and faster; strength not being in her skill set meaning she had to lean and practice more on speed and precision, honing her skills with Jutsus, washing if she was lucky enough to stop next to a stream or pond and sleep. Only to restart the cycle all over again when the first light appeared over the horizon.

Not once did her determination waver. Not once did she regret her decision, regardless of how much she may miss the people she had come to call friends. She knew she could find Konoha, she knew she could get there, she just had to keep on pushing. In the meantime, whilst she searched, she would get stronger, she would learn about these Uchiha's from her book, the little amount it told her, she would fling herself to her limits and then an inch over each day.

Itachi and Sasuke had grown up with this, they had been raised and bathed in it and when Hari finally found them, for she would, she didn't want to be standing in their shadows. She wanted to stand at their sides, like a real family.

Every scrape, every bruise, every blistering step, every headache, every time she flopped onto the grassy floor, unable to move from over exertion was worth it, falling asleep because she couldn't do anything but that. It was worth it if it brought her closer to her brothers. Her twin.

She didn't know whether it was her pure stubborn determination or the actual hope for a true family that was pushing her along each day any more. Maybe a bit of both. All she knew was if god himself came down, showed her the entrance to the underworld, pointed into the smothering darkness and told her that her brothers were down there, you could bet she would dive in before he had finished his sentence.

Perhaps that was why she was so strong willed in finding them, because they were her _brothers_. Hari had been denied a family since she could remember, and like a starving lion, when the prime cut was dangling in front of her mangy maw, she pulled and strained against the chains of her limitations and snapped at it like a beast with rabies.

With them... With Itachi and Sasuke... She had somewhere to belong. She had a home. She had hope. She had a family. Something she had watched when she was knobbly kneed, drowned in Dudley's clothing, with coveting eyes as other children disregarded or completely ignored their own blessings. Something her friends had taken for granted. The one thing she had always wanted but was just out of reach.

But it wasn't any more.

So, when the days grew tough, when she began to dwindle low on food, resorting to scavenging, when her body felt like giving up from the harsh training she put herself through day in day out, when she felt like she was going in circles in this forest that knew no bounds and seemed forever endless, Hari simply pulled that little photo out and looked. Reminding herself of why she was doing this with just one glance.

Hari had given her life for her friends. For her family?... She would give so much more. What worried her was what could possibly be more to her than her own life?

Still, Hari's cycle carried on, like a stone rolled down a hill, gaining speed until it was just a blur of days melding into one another. Then, exactly one month two weeks into her journey, like a beacon shining through the cracks of tree's, lighting her way home like a lighthouse, Hari spotted the gate she had been searching so hard for.

Breaking out of the congregations of tree's, still shaded from sight, eyes wide and locked onto the gate, which was currently wide open as if the village itself was welcoming her home, that the book did no justice too, Hari froze in place, heart going a mile a minute. She took one step out of the shadows towards Konoha before she re-froze, a voice sounding alarmingly like Mad-eye scorning her in the back of her mind.

 _Constant Vigilance!_

Maybe, before making her presence known, it would be best to look around. Get a feel of the place, perhaps look before engaging. It, Konoha, was a foreign world, which meant foreign policies, laws, views... How would they take some stranger swanning into their village? No. Best to be cautious before she outed herself. If they found out she had been with wizarding kind... Well, that wasn't a scenario she wanted to play out, not before she could at least catch a glimpse of her brothers.

Now that she had focused her mind instead of being swept up in undulating emotion, she could feel it, something potent and numerous, sparks, hundreds of candles all flickering inside the great walls in front of her. Chakra. Chakra signatures. Hundreds of them. Hari let out a laugh of relief. It was true... There were people like her... She wasn't alone. Of course, reading about the people you come from, written in cold unfeeling words, it left much to be desired when faced with the irrefutable proof that she wasn't alone in the world. She had to get in.

But how the hell was she supposed to get in without being seen?

Her thumb idly brushed leather and brought her gaze down to her wrist. Maybe it was time she tested her eyes out against someone like her... If she took the cuffs off for a few seconds, approached the two signatures she could feel fluttering by the gate, stationary, even tempered... Guards Hari would hazard a guess, cast a Genjutsu that replicated the peaceful gate... Theoretically, she could walk in, slip her bracelets on and no one would be any the wiser. It was risky, it was stupid, it was a desperate move, what with not knowing if these people had a counter against it or maybe had the same eyes she did, but...

But her brothers were in there. She didn't know if she could wait. Not after fighting a war with this knowledge weighing heavy on her mind, taunting her with the possibility it would never come to fruition, all this travelling, waiting, pointless floundering in the dark, only to come this close and force herself to wait even longer.

Hari had never been known for her patience.

Slipping the bracelets off but keeping a tight hold on them, Hari ran like her life depended on it, sliding around the gates left corner and towards the signatures she felt, Sharingan flaring to crimson life as the two's heads snapped around and fatefully made eye contact. For one heart-pounding moment, Hari had thought she had failed as they carried on looking at her, until she realised they weren't. They were looking through her. Then they went back to talking amicable between themselves, one chewing on the end of a wooden toothpick.

Before the Genjutsu could wear off and leave her exposed, Hari ran once more, she ran until the space around her was just bleached swirls of colours, flashes, pulses, only stopping when she was sure she had to be a good few feet in, diving into the first shadowed space her eyes focused on, which turned out to be the side of a building, clipping the bracelets back on and gliding into a crowd of passers-by before twenty seconds were up.

Hari kept her head down, eyes on the ground, red bleeding to green, hidden in the crowd she had slipped into the middle of, only daring to look up and feel remotely relieved when she had mentally counted to fifteen minutes. Surely if someone was going to come after her, if the two guards had snapped out of the Genjutsu and realized what had happened, they would have come by now?

However, when her eyes finally left the floor, a golden trodden path of soft earth, did she stall once more, ignoring the angry outburst of the people behind her that had to re-adjust the route after unceremoniously bumping into her back.

Her heart thudded in her ear, a pounding drum, nearly failing her as her senses were assaulted. Blues, reds, yellows, greens, towering circular buildings that seemingly brushed the clouds themselves. A mountain, protective and proud in the foreground stood on the horizon... Faces... God-given faces protruding from the rock. Hari couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up, nor did she mind the few odd glances shot her way.

It was... It was beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful.

People roamed around her, going about their everyday tasks. Women, children, men, an elderly couple who clung to each other as tightly as they did to their walking sticks. Smells assaulted her nose, the smell of grass and earth moist in the air, something warm and tongue tantalizingly tasty filtering through, perfumes dusting clouds of aroma, the odd clothes she had never seen before, yet somewhat resembled her own catching her gaze and the hair!

Hari had always been told her hair was weird, with its uncontrollable curls and deep blue that resembled black, but merlin almighty, a woman with green hair, real green hair in plaits and spikes that defied gravity wandered passed her... Worryingly carrying something that resembled a giant throwing star on her back.

It was so odd. It was like being dunk into an ice bath, your first reaction being to freak out, the shock confusing all plans and thoughts until that urge strangled its way to the top. It was all so bright, so alive and her she was, standing in the middle like an alabaster statue, left only to watch in wonderment and amazement. Of all her daydreams, thoughts, theories, fantasies of this place... None of them held a candle to the real thing. Nothing could.

Stomping down on the urge to panic, to ease her senses and gather her scattered emotions, Hari lifted her head tall. She was a Gryffindor. She had faced death himself. She had won a war, now would not be the time her courage failed her, not when the prize meant so much.

Life was a tangle of thorns, an endless quota of choices. To do this. To not do that. To say this. To not say that. However, what many people overlooked was fear was a choice too. You, if you wanted something enough, could choose not to fear the outcome that could possibly land on your head. Hari chose family over the fear of being rejected.

Home. Family. Love.

Hari, at some point, had all those and by Merlin, she would again if she had any say in it. She had been through too much, gave up too much, lost too much to call it quits. When the next lady went to wander passed her, a middle-aged plain woman, wicker basket holding fresh bread and baked goods dangling at her side, apron-like dress on with ankle sandals, Hari stepped in front of her before she could walk passed.

"Excuse me, do you know where the Uchiha's are?"

Of all things, Hari had not expected to be answered in a bout of laughter, the woman's eye's crinkling merrily, her long nose following suit. However, when Hari didn't join in with her jovial nature, when the woman looked back up to see the blank seriousness of Hari's face, her laughter spluttered to a stop.

"Are-... Are you joking?"

Though her bandage hid it, one eyebrow raised high on Hari's forehead as she stared down at the smaller woman.

"No, I need to find them. Do you know where they live?"

The woman backed up three steps, distrust, wariness and caution taking up shop in her face and posture where only moments prior happiness had reigned supreme. Hari's limbs stiffened and she bit down on the rise of her arm, her hand flexing for her sword.

"Oh, I know where you need to go if you're not joking. To the hospital! This generation... Making jokes about such thing... The indecency..."

The woman pushed passed her in a flurry of skirts and a rather harsh, uncalled for bump of wicker basket against Hari's thigh, leaving the taller woman to stare bewilderedly at her quickly retreating back. What the hell was that all about?

Shaking off the confusion and slight dread that was prickling at the base of her spine, Hari carried on, questioning the next person she ran across. Only to come up short once again when the man frowned at her and walked away. She tried again... And again... And again. Every time, she seemed to get the same sort of response. Some just laughed it off, some stormed off, some simply saw her before she could speak, frowned and backed away like she was mentally unstable.

The tingling in the base of her spine turned to full out foreboding that prickled bones and raised goosebumps onto her exposed flesh, a chill taking over that had nothing to do with the hot weather.

She had nearly given up all hope until she felt eyes burning into the back of her head, a feeling she knew all too well from her years in the limelight of the wizarding world. Someone was watching her. It wasn't hard to find the culprit, his wide eyes and skewed stance as if he had perfectly frozen in mid-step, showed he wasn't exactly trying to hide. He looked to be a chief of some kind, dirty apron over white clothes, little white hat placed on greying dark brown hair, a little steaming bamboo box with an iron handle held in his right hand.

Hari didn't hesitate to walk over, maybe he knew her family? By the way he was looking at her, like seeing a phantom that had lurched from the ground, he surely knew something of worth.

"Excuse me, do you know where the Uchiha complex is?"

Maybe she had finally asked the right man this time, or asked the right question as he gave a shaky nod, pointing over somewhere behind her shoulder, voice tremulous and weak.

"Just carry down that road to the very west of the city. You can't miss it, when you see the clan symbol, you're there..."

Hari smiled dazzlingly, looking for all her worth that she had stunned the man even further, throwing out a hasty thanks as she took off down the road he had pointed out, leaving him prone in the road, feet glued to the earth as if they had grown roots. Hari was long gone before he sprung back to life, dropping his box onto the floor, ignoring the crash of ramen onto dirt as he took off for the Hokage's office.

* * *

 _~THREE HOURS LATER~_

"How did you get into the village?"

The blonde woman with a rather impressive bust demanded as Hari finished her sentence, just as Hari turned to face the other occupants in the room, hands bracing against the large desk in front of her, pushing to a stand.

The tension in the air was palpable, thick and moist, cloying between the odd group converged into a compromisingly small office of some sort. The one with pink hair, weirdly not the oddest hair she had seen on her journey, would not stop staring, mouth slightly agape, eyes almost comically wide, pupils pinpricks in the vastness of sea-foam green eyes. At one point before she got close enough, Hari could have sworn she heard the pink haired woman whisper Sasuke.

The man, who despite his tall stance, lack of wrinkles and other tellings of old age, had shockingly bright grey hair; who knew grey could shine so brilliantly? Standing up to a point, swooshed to the side, as if he had shoved his fingers into an electrical socket, his stance worryingly straightened an inch, just a fraction, but Hari's eyes didn't miss the change.

The woman was the most concerning, she oozed attention, stern and grim, eyes locked onto Hari's form as she stared back. the woman was the authority figure here, Hari knew, she had seen McGonagall have that same aura hanging around her like a storm cloud. Hari tried to ease the atmosphere with a joke, only to find she had aggravated it, such was her luck, as she tauntingly flared her Sharingan to life.

"Eye contact is a dangerous thing. Lovely, but oh so dangerous."

The man leaped into action with lightning speed, hand reaching for a triangular shaped dagger, Hari just barely having enough time to Accio it out his hand before he could lift it and throw it at her, snapping it out of the air as it sailed towards her. Silence settled over them like rubble and dust over a bomb sight. Hari winced as the blade cut into the tender flesh of her palm, she winced even harder at the thought of how disastrous her first impression was turning out to be.

This was not how she thought it would turn out, not after all the complete shit she had gone through to get here, and all she had to blame was herself. In hindsight, the statement had sounded more like a threat than a quip. Trying to salvage the situation, Hari slowly walked over to the man, eyes fading to green, holding the handle of the weird dagger out between them, an offering of him to take it, which he slowly did as his one eye, the rest of his face covered in a strange headband and mask combo, eyed her up and down.

"It was a joke, a poor one, I'll give you that, but nothing more than that. I'm not here to hurt anyone. I just... I'm looking for my brothers. I found a note, a scroll from a person called Sakura Haruno, who I'm guessing is pinkie over there, saying if I wanted to find my brother, Sasuke, to come find her at the Hogake's office. I thought I was welcome. If I've misunderstood, then I'll go. I didn't mean to cause any trouble."

Hari backed up, keeping her front to them, never showing her back. She may have told them she meant no harm, but they had not promised the same and after the fiasco that is her life, Hari wasn't willing to take any risks. Before she could completely edge towards the door and leave, the blond woman's voice shattered the silence.

"Wait... Take a seat. We mean no harm either, it's just... We were not expecting your arrival. Sakura, go and have a break, you have a shift this afternoon."

finally, the pink haired woman's eyes left her to go zooming towards the blonde woman, her ghostly pale complexion gaining colour back with a pretty blush and an indignant huffing blur of stumbled words.

"But Tsunade-sama, She... I... Sasuke-"

So the blonde woman was called Tsunade, was Sama her last name? Hari mentally shook and shooed the pointless thought away. She had bigger and darker things to focus on.

"Go Sakura-chan."

Sakura stormed out of the room with a bang of a slamming door, only one backward glance spared in Hari's way. Then both the eyes of the man, which Hari felt burning on her face, and Tsunade's settled on her, watching avidly as she inched forward and took the opposing seat from Tsunade. Her backside had barely brushed cushion before she was hit with the first question.

"How did you get away from the U~Izaido?"

Hari answered almost immediately, a suspicious noise that sounded like a strangled chuckle coming from the man behind her, but when she glanced over, he was adamantly looking the other way.

"The U~zee-what-now?"

When she turned back, she didn't miss the upturn to Tsunade's lips, a hint of a smile playing on her face, though that disappeared as she answered Hari's owlish question, being replaced with steel.

"Wizards. How... How are you still alive? We thought you to be long dead Hari-san."

Hari straightened up in her seat, locking eyes with Tsunade, reminding herself she wasn't in any position to be fooling around. If she was going to get anywhere in her search for her brothers, she had to play her cards right.

"It's a very long story."

Tsunade's perfectly plucked eyebrows raised high on her forehead, the odd little gem in the middle seemingly glinting. Hari didn't back down. For too long people had tried to get things from her with nothing in return. Dumbledore, the order, the whole of wizarding kind in some form or another. No. If she was giving something, she was getting what she wanted, what she came all this way for, in return. Her brothers.

When she had finally made it to the compound she had searched feverishly for, for what felt like a lifetime, tired yet hopeful, that hope had been quickly dashed when she found moss covered gates, empty streets, dark windows and dusty verandas. She had tried telling herself it meant nothing. They had moved, that's all. Yet, trepidation had crackled up her spine and singed her flesh.

"We have time."

No. They didn't. There was never enough time. In the end, searching through the compound, she had found her parents, Fugaku and Mikoto, had given her all the clues and hints she needed to get home. When she had died, when she had travelled to that opaque, peacefully sluggish world where she had found her parents, they had been standing to the side of the road. In her frantic search of the compound, she had found the same place, perched in front of a house, the door open. Upon inspection, the photo's in the house had told her that even dead, they had led her home.

Home to a ghost town, the house looking like it hadn't been lived in for a good couple of years. What they had asked of her, what they had told her... _They need you..._ Well, the request seemed all that more pressing now, faced with the cold and brutish facts that something had gone down. Something bad.

And even with the scroll she had accidentally bumped into, having sat down near the shelving unit to try and push back the emotion trying to drown her, knocking into the cherry wood, the scroll rolling off and hitting her knee with a thud, her name attached, no one seemed to be willing to part with the facts she desperately needed. Hari's voice was calm when she spoke, but no one could deny the fire lurking underneath the placid surface.

"Yet not enough time to tell me where the hell my brothers are. Funny that. Tsunade is it? I've been travelling for a long while, I've been through hell the last couple of months, scratch that, the last couple of years. If you won't give me the answers I seek, yet demand them from me, well, I can always find my brothers myself."

Eventually, after a beat of silence, Tsunade sat down, eye to eye, equal to equal. Good. Now they could get the ball rolling.

"Fine. I answer your questions, you answer mine. Now, how did you get away from the U~Izaido."

A tit for tat then. No. That wouldn't do. Hari didn't have the time nor the patience to see it through, one mundane question at a time. If they were going to get through this, if Hari was ever going to know where her brothers were... If they were okay and live, if her fighting so hard through the war had been all for naught, then she needed to get to the core of the matter. But how to divert Tsunade from this line of questioning without angering her? Shock.

"I died."

Tsunade's exclamation followed promptly.

"...What?!"

Hari played it down, pulling her gaze over to the wall by her side, non-committedly shrugging her shoulders. She wasn't going to tell them anything until she got Tsunade's word she would get answers. She had learned her lesson when she never asked for Dumbledore's word to tell her more, and had been fucked over when he had died before she could gain it. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"Well, It obviously didn't last long-"

"Start from the beginning."

Strike one against blondey. If there was one thing Hari hated above all, apart from being kept in the dark, it would be people cutting her off. As her eyes flashed at Tsunade and brown flashed back, despite feeling the flare of Chakra coming from Tsunade, pulsating, growing, showing Hari she was not one to piss off, Hari didn't back down. This last month and a half, she had been dragged through hell and being so close to her goal, so close to her brothers, so close to knowing the truth, no one was going to stand in her way.

"...Please."

The pulse of Chakra stopped as Tsunade frowned at Hari.

"What?..."

Hari could have sworn she saw a sweat-drop appear on Tsunade's forehead, another odd noise coming from the nameless man just off to her side, now leaning against the wall, arms crossed over broad chest.

The truth was, because of a war fought thousands of years ago, the truth of it likely forgotten, Hari couldn't fully trust Tsunade or any Shinobi because of how they could view her interactions with wizarding kind, yet they couldn't trust her because of those interactions. It was a vicious cycle. One Hari would, hopefully, put to rest this day. She... As grievous as it felt to admit it, she needed their help. She was at a standstill, a dead end and did not know which way to face to find her brothers. By their reaction to her, they knew them. Sakura knew at least Sasuke. This was her only lead.

"You forgot to say please. It's common decency. And I want your word that you will tell me where the fuck my brothers are afterwards, if I answer all your questions. No ifs, buts or maybes, you tell me. Deal?"

Tsunade lifted her hands and planted her elbows on the table, interlocking her fingers and balancing her chin on top, blonde hair ruffling as she gave a solitary nod.

"Deal, but you leave nothing out. What you tell me next depends on whether you are welcomed warmly for managing to get home or dragged down to Anbu base to be interrogated to see if you're under the U~Izaido influence or trying to infiltrate our village for nefarious reasons. It won't be pretty. Understand? Right, well, do you know why you were taken?"

Hari nodded her affirmation of the deal, her words carrying on a whisper.

"I think we both know why I was taken, but I'm guessing you want more than just me telling you it was for my eyes?"

When Tsunade gave a nod once more, Hari sighed and leaned back in her chair. So, regretfully, sorrowfully, hurtfully, she told them of her life from beginning to Voldemorts death to her subsequent arrival in their lovely village. She told them of Lily's sacrifice, she told them of Horcruxes, she told them about the war, the death, she told them of the prophecy linking her to Voldemort, the power he knows not, her eyes. She told them of the deathly Hallows, the basilisk, she told them of what Dumbledore had told her after the loss of Sirius, the tournament, how she reunited the three hallows, how she had willingly died because she too was a Horcrux, only to come back and win against all the odds. She told them of the ministry, how she had nearly burned it down. She had told them about training herself the best she could with the little information she had been given about her heritage.

She told them of the good people who had died. She told them of Dobby, precious Dobby, she told them of Fred and his jokes, and painfully, she told them of Sirius. Sitting in that chair, eye's growing colder and more detached the longer she was forced to reminisce over the blood splattered past she had, eyes locked on the window behind Tsunade's head, refusing to make eye contact as she was partially forced to re-live the pain of her past, voice growing robotic. She told them all.

"You... You have the Mangekyo Sharingan? And you didn't kill this Sirius Black?"

Hari snapped out of her detached manner, rage bubbling in her lungs, scalding her throat, though, oddly enough, it wasn't her bark that rang out in blistering anger but the man who Hari hadn't notice until now that he had come to lean on the desk, listening to Hari's pitiful life story.

"Tsunade-Sama!"

Thankfully, Tsunade had the grace enough to look abashedly apologetic towards Hari.

"I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. We were led to believe to obtain the Mangekyo Sharingan, you had to kill a person you loved, yet, you gained it and didn't fill the believed requirements. It seems we still have much to learn too."

Hari simply inclined her head to show she understand. To be frank, she didn't care what these people thought of her. What she cared about was she had lived up to her end of the bargain, now it was Tsunade's turn.

"So, are you going to have me arrested, or are you going to finally tell me where my brothers are?"

The atmosphere in the room dropped. The man, who Hari still did not know the name of, kicked away from the wall and strolled over to the window, turning his back to the entire room. Tsunade in turn eyes lowered until she was staring at a point in her desk, lips strained before she glanced back up, beginning the long tale of murder, betrayal, family pride and the quest for power.

"I'm afraid I don't have the answers or what you have come all this way looking for. You see, we don't know where either of your brothers are exactly. When Uchiha Itachi was thirteen..."

As Hari listened, as she tried to wrap her thoughts around what she was being told, for the first time since setting out, Hari wished she could turn back, regretted even coming... She had come too late. She had failed. It tasted like arsenic on her tongue.

* * *

It had all been silent in the office, Hari stonily still in her chair, face a perfect mask, the two people, Tsunade and now who she knew was called Kakashi, staring at her expectedly, waiting for something, anything. Hari herself didn't know what to say, what to feel, her emotions feeling like a ping pong ball bouncing from one to another, never landing but picking up tempo, a boom, boom, boom in her chest. Hari's voice was frighteningly vacant.

"Sasuke... Sasuke spoke of killing his brother... Of fratricide, of doing anything to get to that goal since he was seven years old... And none of you sat down and talked to him? None of you tried to stem that hate? You... You egged it on. You nurtured it. Not only that, you bloody made him stay in the house he had seen his whole clan, his mother and father, murdered brutally and... And you're confused as to why Sasuke left? Why he's so messed in the head?"

The parallels... The similarity of her and Sasuke's lives, though having grown apart from each other, made her dizzy. Loss of family. A Horcrux and a curse mark. Another snake faced, immortality obsessed bastard waiting on the sidelines to take over their bodies. War. Yet every choice Sasuke had taken, every offer snatched, were the complete opposite she had taken.

Hari was made into a Horcrux. Sasuke had chosen the curse mark. Hari had fought with the very last breath in her body to defeat Voldemort, even when he had offered her a place on his side. Sasuke had willingly gone to this... Orochimaru and gladly joined his ranks. Hari had gone to war and fought for the preservation of precious life, for freedom. Sasuke was going to war to kill, for selfish revenge.

Tsunade's cheeks flushed but Hari was far, far, far from being done, even as Tsunade tried to cut over her. She knew what emotion she had landed on now. Rage. Rage at the people in front of her. Rage at life and all its irony. Rage at herself for not being here...

"Now, Hari-san, it wasn't just-"

Hari stood up in a flash, chair squeaking obnoxiously against the wooden floor, her voice a tempestuous storm. Daring them, goading them, baiting them to argue with her.

"I am not finished! You sit there... You sit there and dare try to play innocent? A whole clan is dead... My clan is dead, my brothers are both known and wanted criminals, one in a terrorist organization, the other off with... With a man who literally wants his body? Doing Merlin knows what atrocities... You expect me to just sit here and say I get it, I understand?

How could anyone understand this? How could anyone tell her all this, all this pain, all this death, all this anger and sit perfectly calm in their seat, as if talking about the weather. These were her brothers, these were the people she had fought so hard to get to, only to get here and realize they were killing themselves, killing each other, both monsters in their own right. Killers.

... But she was a Murderer too. She had killed in the war. She had taken lives. They may have been death-eaters, but they were still lives. Death was death at the end of the day. Those people she had killed, they likely had families, they likely had people who loved them, they could have sisters who were looking for them... To the death-eaters, to the opposing side of the great wizarding war, she was the bogeyman, she was the bad guy, she was a psychotic child tearing down their ideologies and hopes for a better future. It was all in perspective. She was just as damned as the next man... She was just as damned as her brothers.

"You said Itachi was growing distant... Cold, he was a thirteen-year-old boy who had spent the majority of his life killing, and not one single person, while he withdrew, thought to sit him down and talk, no one thought that maybe we should do a psych evaluation on him? You obviously noticed the changes, you just fucking told them to me! And you have the balls to sit there and wonder why he snapped...Yet... None of you did anything. Nothing at all! You know Itachi has been telling Sasuke to grow stronger, by any means necessary, to kill him, to find him and end him. And... You let Sasuke do just that? You let Sasuke do exactly what the man you are trying to get him away from? How the fuck does any of that make sense?And you expect me to be okay with this? You expect me to understand any of this? What do you want me to do, say my thanks for the fuck all you've done?"

Her emotions seemed to by fighting a war all on their own. Sorrow, pain, relief at knowing they were still, at least, alive. A small mercy to be sure, one Hari didn't even know they deserved any more. Was it a Uchiha's fate to be drenched in death, for all of them were. Itachi, Sasuke, Hari. They were like the deathly Hallows themselves, all fighting for different reason, yet still from the same yoke, still birthed and reborn in the mists of death and blood. Itachi, the elder wand, the one with the power, the skill, the one to cut people down. Sasuke, the resurrection stone, lost in the pain of the past, fighting for ghosts, people long dead who could never feel the absolution of revenge succeeded. And Hari, once again, she was the damned cloak, the same cloak she had buried at the bottom of her bag. James Potter had left it to her, despite not being his true child, she had been his child all the same. He and Lily had loved her. She wouldn't dare leave it behind.

The protector, the warmth, the safety, the one who drives for life in all forms, the one to eventually give up their life, their protection, to pass down to one they loved most but... But how was she meant to protect them from each other? Did she even want to protect them? Itachi especially? He had killed everyone... Their parents. He had... Hari felt sick. She didn't know anything, her mind was a whirlpool, thoughts staying within her grasp just long enough for her to get a feel of them, but never any real meaning. Her heart, well, her heart was shards of glass in her chest, puncturing her lungs, hurting with each breath.

"Uchiha-san, you are talking to the Hokage, have some respect!"

Hari's eyes dangerously morphed into her Sharingan, glaring at Kakashi, head snapping to him and never leaving. She felt so angry, so rageful, so... Unbalanced. Now was not the time to test her. Thankfully, Tsunade gently raised a hand, palm out, politely silencing Kakashi.

"It's okay Kakashi-san. You're right Hari-san. We have made mistakes. Plenty. More than I can count. But we... I am trying to right those wrongs. I know this is far from what you wanted to hear... What you deserved to hear after all you've been through in your life, to get here. But I can not change it. I can only ask for your help."

Hari scoffed and backed away from the desk. She didn't want to be near them. She didn't want to be near anyone. She didn't want to even be near herself, not with the horrid thoughts rolling around her brain, the emotions forming hands around her throat, strangling her. If she had have just been here... If Dumbledore hadn't of taken her... Oh, the wondrous bliss of what ifs. But Dumbledore had taken her, she wasn't here when they had needed her, when Sasuke had needed her and now... Now it could all be too late. Family. Home. Love. That was what made her come all this way. Instead, she had been greeted with Death, empty houses and hatred.

"My help? There's nothing to help with. There... my brothers... They're... It's all gone. Why would I help the people who've let it come to this?"

Even to her own ears, Hari had never thought she had sounded as defeated as she had right then and there, even when she had figured out she had needed to die to kill Voldemort. Tsunade was more gentle when she stood, more composed, her eyes locking onto Hari's despite Hari still having the Sharingan twirling in their depths, an act of trust for sure, sucking Hari in and holding her there.

"Because, even as you say these things, your eyes tell the truth. Despite what they've done, despite what they still may do, they are your brothers. From what you have said... From the life you have lead, family means most to you Hari-san. Sasuke isn't dead... He's not too far gone. You... You can help draw him back to the light. I believe that with the bottom of my heart."

Hari's remark was derisive, laced in acid and festering loathing. Who that loathing was aimed at was anyone's guess.

"Save Sasuke, but not Itachi..."

Her next comment was hushed, nothing but an exhalation of breath that could possibly form words in the right twist of winds, so quiet, Hari barely heard it herself, though she had spoken it.

"He's my brother too."

Hari straightened out, that hardened mask she had perfected over the years sliding onto her face, sealing itself in concrete, never to be removed. A light that had been shining brightly in her eyes since learning of her brothers went out, dying under the breeze of the truth she had been hit with. With three words, no goodbye's, nothing, Hari turned on her heel and left through the door, clicking it shut behind her.

"I need air."

Kakashi was the first to recover and move, strolling around the desk to face Tsunade, though it took him some time to pull his eyes away from the door, hands once again finding the comfort of his trouser pockets, his stance slouching now the heavy atmosphere was disappearing around them.

"Should I follow her, make sure she doesn't leave? She's powerful, maybe even more than she realizes. Did you see? She activated her Sharingan while wearing two... Two chakra suppressors, twice, so it wasn't a fluke. She also managed to somehow snatch my Kunai faster than most could. Who know's what damage she can cause if she lets her anger get the better of her?"

Tsunade However, stayed looking at the door even as she was addressed.

"I saw Kakashi-san and No, don't follow. She'll stay. We're the only path to her brothers, she'll stay just for that. You heard what she's lived through, what she's gone through, you saw her eyes. Do you really believe she'll turn her back? On that chance, on us... On them? As for acting on her anger, as you said, she had her Sharingan activated twice yet... She did nothing. Do you believe she is a danger Kakashi-san?"

Kakashi turned to face the door behind him, eye scanning the grooves and knots in the wood as if it could give him the answer he had already come to before Tsunade had finished asking.

"No... No."

Tsunade nodded, the click and clack of her heels on the polished flooring echoing around them as she walked out from behind her desk, over to Kakashi's side, kicking back against the desk, crossing her arms over her chest as she glanced his way out of the corner of her eyes.

"She'll come back, it's a lot to take in and she's hurting. She just needs to calm down. Until then, I must ask a big favour from you."

Back to his normal behaviour, Kakashi distractedly pulled out his Icha Icha paradise book, flicking to the dog-eared page, dodging around the obviously heavy request Tsunade was going to ask of him by the tone in her voice.

"Mmm, depends on what that favour is."

Tsunade didn't disappoint.

"I need you to falsify some papers for me and bring me Nara Shikaku and Nara Shikamaru ."

Kakashi's gaze flickered to her and away from the book, looking at her from the corner of his eye like she was to him, though both still stayed facing the door.

"You don't think the Elders..."

Tsunade bit her bottom lip, eyes and face looking tired beyond her years, and that was saying something if you knew the woman's true age.

"Yes. I believe just that. We need her help to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, she won't be able to do that if the Elders find out there's another Uchiha and we both know that U~Izaido that took her wasn't working alone. A random abduction for her eyes I could partially believe, but he didn't just stumble across someone with a matching birthday to that... What was it Hari-san called it? A prophecy by happy chance, as he told Hari-san. He had help. You know what the Elders will want, don't you Kakashi-san?"

Thud. The book snapped shut and found itself being jerked back into Kakashi's pouch, the grey-haired man already walking towards the window to leave. Kami forbid he actually ever used a door.

"I'll get right on it Hokage."

He was gone in a poof of smoke before Tsunade had fully offered her gratitude.

"Thank you Kakashi-san."

* * *

Hari roared as she overturned a cabinet, sending its books, photo frames, and trinkets scattering over the floor, wood splintering. Somehow, lost in the whirlwind of her emotions, she had found herself back at the damned house that had started all this. The empty, desolate, shell of a home. She needed to let it all out before it ate her from the inside.

Nothing was safe from her anger, not the lamp she had thrown, smashing into the living-room wall. Not the side table she had kicked through. Not the bookcase she had tipped over, crashing to the floor with the rest of the broken furniture, not the wall she had cracked accidentally. A Broken Home, a broken family, A broken Hari.

It was all fragmented and in pieces at her feet.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, her rage subsided, taken over by grief and sorrow, her knees folding underneath her, falling to the floor, knee's digging into shards of glass, cutting, biting, slicing. It was no comparison to the pain she was feeling inside.

She had come too late.

She should have come as soon as she had found out. She should have been here. She should have... It was all gone. Finally, with a heart-wrenching wail, Hari sobbed and whined, folding in on herself like a stack of cards, forehead crashing into the floor, hands digging into the wood grain, threatening to tear her nails off.

It was her fault. She should have been here. She should have found out sooner. She should have done something, anything. Now it was too late. Itachi would be killed for his crimes, Tsunade had been as blunt as possible on that fact and Sasuke would follow suit if they didn't bring him back in time. Just like the deathly Hallows, just like the invisibility cloak, she would be the last one standing, the last to greet death.

When no more tears would fall, when her eyes were puffed and red and sore, Hari shakily pushed herself up to a sitting position, neck lolling until she was staring at the ceiling with unseeing eyes. Trying to stand, her foot slipped against a shattered photo-frame, forcing her to pick it up so she could stand.

However, as she went to throw it to the side, to get it away from her, the image itself caught her eye, ending with her pulling it closer to her rather than throwing it away. That boy from her dream... Itachi was twirling around a baby, curly hair and green eyes flashing under sunlight, both laughing joyously. They stood next to a pond... Dragonflies in green, blue and red dancing around them, buzzing with life.

 _"Come here Tonbo..."_

Hari thought she remembered now, that day at the pond. Hazy, dislodged, little blinks into the past that bombarded her brain in a flurry of blows. The dream had been real. Itachi... He was the first to call her that. Tonbo. Dragonfly. She was sure of it.

There had to be some part of that boy still alive, lost in the man he had become. Hari had to believe that, she just had to. Maybe it was buried deep, lost to even himself, but that little boy, her brother, he had to be in there somewhere.

The deathly Hallows... The only way to defeat death... Was to unite them. The wand. The stone. The cloak. Itachi. Sasuke. Hari. If standing together, as one, death could be diverted...

When had she ever given up, even when she was told and sure herself it was well passed the time of action? Never. When she had thought about what she would do for her family, more than giving up her life, she had been confused as to what that would be. What meant more to her than giving up her life? To Hari, to someone who had fought to do the right thing for so long, it would be her sense of justice. Justice Sasuke and Itachi surely needed to face. To save... To have her brothers, she would need to sacrifice that yearning to see justice done.

In the wake of the decision, the sacrifice was all too easy to make.

Hari stood, still holding that single photo, gently placing it on the only piece of furniture she hadn't completely destroyed, her bandaged fingers brushing the children's faces as she let go.

She had one last conversation with the Hokage to have.

She would bring Sasuke back, she would drag him home by his ear if she had to, bloodied and bruised. Konoha would accept him, Tsunade had told her such. If she got to him in time, if she convinced him to come home, or worse case scenario, hauled him back kicking and screaming, then he would be welcomed. She would bring him back from the brink he had driven himself to... And she would bring back Itachi too.

Merlin help them both if they thought they were going to kill each other while Hari was around.

* * *

It was well into the hours of the night, the moon full and round, smiling down upon Tsunade as she finally left the Hogake's office to head home. Halfway through her journey, the soft pad of foot meeting concrete was her only warning as a shadow loomed at her side. She didn't jump as the moonlight cast her companion's face into recognition, she didn't show her surprise, despite how she felt at being caught out on.

 _The girl was fast, sneaky too._

"I thought it would take longer for you to seek me out Hari-san."

Hari walked in pace with her, face directly staring out at the road in front of them, a small smile playing on her lips, clashing against the minute redness to the girl's eyes Tsunade could see. Tsunade didn't blame her, if she had have lived the life Hari had, come all this way only to be told what she had been told, she would have done more than cry.

"You said back in the office that you needed my help in bringing Sasuke back to the village. Does that offer still stand?"

Warningly, as if telling of Tsunade's fortune if she took a wrong step in this conversation, Hari's odd yet beautiful sword glinted like a star in the moonlight. Choosing her words carefully, Tsunade responded.

"Hai. I have a team who will soon, no doubt, be heading to retrieve him. With you on the team, if he knew you were alive, it could be the deciding factor to make the dense moron see the light finally."

Eventually, Hari's eyes flickered her way, green bright, intelligent and sparkling under the pale washed out light of the moon.

"Do not lie to me. You want me on the team for my Sharingan. You think if Sasuke was to be engaged, he's going to put up a fight. You don't know how... Adapt he as become with his, do you? You want my Sharingan there to even the playing fields when he will obviously use it. My face won't hurt either, I'm guessing the way the village inhabitants reacted to me, the way Sakura uttered Sasuke's name when I entered the office, how you knew exactly who I was without me telling you, I look a lot like him. If he see's my face, it will stall him enough for the team to capture him if it comes down to it. That's why you want me on the team."

Tsunade stopped in her tracks, Hari stopping three steps in front of her, partially turning her way.

"Hari-san... We are not the U~Izaido. We do not want you simply for your eyes. In part, you are correct, but I mean it when I say I think you can bring him back by simply being there. Are twins common in the U~Izaido?"

Hari's chin raised slightly, as if suspicious of this turn of conversation. Tsunade smiled indulgently, slipping her hands into her jacket pockets.

"Not really, but common enough. I knew two sets."

Tsunade nodded as if this knowledge was nothing knew, once again hiding her surprise under years of emotional control.

"Well, here, there have only been four written documents about twins in our entire history, that's including you and Sasuke-san. That's a very short number for such a long time. They are beyond rare. Do you want to know why they are so rare? Because, with our Chakra, in the womb, we have it as soon as that first spark of life lights. Chakra is fundamentally aggressive and territorial, trying to destroy any that invades its system. That's why healing for us is so hard. The injured parties Chakra instinctively fights the invading Chakra. To be babies, vulnerable, Chakra extra protective and out in the open, in the womb and to have it not attack the twins and completely destroy it, killing the babies too is an odd thing indeed. In short, It creates a bond, the two Chakras blending together, becoming one,something we still do not understand why or how. I've felt your Chakra Hari-san, it feels so much like Sasuke-san's it's startling. I mean it when I say if anyone can bring him back, it's you. Just like your chakra, you two are blended, bonded. Just look at the similarities in your life although you have grown up apart."

Hari slowly turned around, folding her arms over as she met Tsunade head on.

"I'll help-"

Tsunade smiled, nodded and carried on walking, cutting over Hari's voice as she passed. She had been told before, while in the middle of her copious poker games, she assumed too much.

"Thank you Hari-san. Come to my office tomorrow, no doubt my apprentice will want to speak to you and I need you to meet some people."

Before she could blink, Hari was standing in front of her, the moon shining behind, blotching out her features until she was nothing but a blank silhouette. Tsunade frowned, her fingers clenching in her pockets.

"You never let me finish. I said I'd help... On one condition."

Hari slipped out of her way, finally returning back to the light by a single step, big, bright, innocent smile and sparkling eyes back full force. It disarmed Tsunade, admittedly, very quickly and the blond grinned back, nodding.

"One condition? Done. Deal."

Then, Hari's smile simmered down, no longer looking innocent but all too reminiscent of a snake before it took a bite out of you. The glint in her eye no longer looked so sparkly, but that of a kunai's edge before it plunged into your chest. Tsunade, having believed she had won Hari over, no longer felt like the cat who got the creme, but like the canary cornered and trapped in the tight coils of a black mamba.

"What... What's the condition?

Shit. She had given her word before even knowing the condition. Jiraiya had always tried to tell her she showed her hand too soon, but she never listened... She wished she had of now. But like many of those failed games at poker, blackjack and twenty-one, it was too late. She had given her word and to Tsunade, her word was held above all else. By the playful tilt of Hari's head to one side, the green-eyed Uchiha had already figured that much out about her.

Fuck.

Uchiha Hari had purposefully let her cut over her, the time she done it in the office replaying in her mind, so she could haggle the small print in the contract before Tsunade could now any better. Tsunade felt like a Genin all over again instead of the legendary Sannin she was. Kakashi was right, there was more to Hari than even the girl realized.

However, when the condition left Hari's flushed lips, all humour or scolding left her in a gust, freezing her in place, heart pummelling her rib cage, world swimming around her, colour draining from her tanned face, everything sludging down the sink hole that was madness, confusion and disbelief.

"You will pardon Itachi of all crimes, past, present and future."

"You pardon Uchiha Itachi."

* * *

Next chapter: Excerpt:

 _"S-S-Sasuke?"_

 _Sakura tried to grasp the back of her friends jacket, but her fingers only clasped air as the blonde ran full pelt towards the figure he had spotted at the end of the street, standing just outside Ramen Ichiraku with Nara Shikamaru of all people_

 _"Naruto, wait!"_

 **A.N:** I know, I know, I don't like this chapter either. Believe it or not, I've re-written it three times already. However, this will have to do. The problem came from the conversation between Hari and Tsunade, I ended up cutting out all the re-hashing and repeating of what's happened in Hari's life and Sasuke's because it just took up way too much space. This chapter is already a whopping 10k words, added in with the whole conversation, it would have been 16k. Plus, I am currently under the weather (Damned flu) so please excuse my writing this chapter if it's not up to parr, trust me, next chapter is better as we get into the groove of things and the ball finally starts moving. Also, if you haven't guessed, the big blonde ball of energy is finally making his appearance.

Thank you so much to all the response to this fic, it's been absolutely amazing... Beyond amazing. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and what's to come and as always, if you have a spare moment, please leave a review, they make my day and get my muse whispering in my ear. Until next time, stay beautiful!- _AlwaysEatTheRude21_

 **Poll Results So Far:**

 _Shikamaru/Hari- 151_

 _Gaara/Hari-142_

 _Kakashi/Hari-135_

 _Sai/Hari-132_

 _Naruto/Hari-127_

 _Neji/Hari-44_

 _Shino/Hari-26_

 _Deidara/Hari-15_

 _Sasori/Hari-15_

 _Kiba/Hari-14_

 _Suigetsu/Hari-9_

 _Kisame/Hari-7_

 _Sakura/Hari-2_

 _Hana/Hari-1_

 _Itachi/Hari/Sasuke (_ Yes, this was asked for and as I promised, all votes will be considered _)-1_

 _Kiba/Hari/Sai-1_

Remember the voting shuts on the **15th November** , if you don't see the pairing you want, drop it in a P.M or review and it too will be added and the voting is really close, so make sure your vote is in by the 15th! P.S A huge thank you to all those who have voted!

If you haven't voted yet, please do, your input is more than welcome. Go to the poll or if you don't want to do that, drop it in a review or P.M... Damn, send it by owl or Jutsu scroll, if I see it, I'll add it :)

Questions answered:

 **The Petunia Plot Hole:**

Last time I answered this, it was an over view of my thoughts, but as this has annoyed some people, I will go in depth about why I have done this and why I see it as okay.

Lily's protection over Harry has nothing at all to do with blood. None. (I'm quoting from Harry wiki here, so bare with me.)

'Sacrificial protection is an ancient, powerful, and long-lasting counter-charm. This charm unlike others has no incantation and is endowed when one person (who we will call "the victim" for purposes of this article) ultimately sacrifices his or her own life willingly and out of deep and pure love to save the life of one or more people (who this article will refer to as "beneficiaries").'

This is the spell Lily cast when she gave her life for Harry. And by this:

'In order for the protection to form, the victim must be given the option to live, but consciously choose death. This is why James Potter's death did not confer magical protection on Lily and Harry in 1981; Voldemort was set upon killing James and thus never gave him an opportunity to choose to save himself. Lily, on the other hand, was offered the chance to step aside because Voldemort had promised Severus Snape that he would not kill her unless she got in his way. Her conscious refusal to comply with Voldemort's demand is why unusually strong magical protection was conferred upon her only son.'

By saying James could have saved Lily's life too, if given the same option she was, despite the lack of sharing blood or being biologically related (disregard Harry's part for a second), means anybody can cast this without being related to a person.

Like when Harry (In the books) cast this on the whole of his allies in the battle of Hogwarts when he willingly let himself be hit with the killing curse. These are the two known cases of this charm being used.

'During the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter willingly allowed himself to be hit with a Killing Curse cast by Lord Voldemort so that the piece of Voldemort's soul residing inside him would be destroyed and the Dark wizard could be defeated once and for all. This conferred a certain amount of protection on Harry's allies, making it so that spells Voldemort tried to place on them, including Silencing Charms and a Full Body-Bind Curse, quickly wore off.'

Harry is obviously not related too all of his allies in the battle, some being muggle-borns after all, meaning blood has nothing to do with this charm.

However, now here is where it get's tricky, when Petunia comes in. The reason Harry was sent to Petunia was because Dumbledore cast a spell which is called Bond of blood.

'If the victim was related to the beneficiary, then a powerful charm known as the bond of blood can be cast upon the beneficiary to give them additional protection (although it is unknown how closely the two must be related for this charm to work). This charm prevents any harm from coming to the beneficiary from the murderer while they are in a relative's home.'

Now, this is were I admit, I'm swimming in very murky waters by having Harry adopted by James and Lily instead of related. However, that's the key word here, related. The only mention of blood is in the name of the spell. It even says it is unknown how closely the two must be related for this charm to work. Being adopted would make Harry related to Petunia. So, I've taken liberties, like many others who write fanfiction, and as Lily is related to Petunia, and there-fore Harry despite the lack of blood between the two, Lily being the bridge here so to speak, I don't see a problem with yet.

That being said, I can see where people are coming from and how I'm pulling at strings here. I just wanted to clear up where I'm coming from and at the end of the day, this is fanfiction, which is for fun. Because If we are going to be a hundred percent plot-hole free, then you would have to change Harry Potter canon too because it has its own holes, and let's face it, Harry-verse and Naruto-verse could never meet. At the end of the day, if you can't get over this, then just stop reading. No one if forcing you too.

 **Will Hari be OP (Overly Powerful)?**

No. I will not go that route as, although I don't mind fics like that, I personally like having my characters struggle and learn from things. However, Hari is a powerful character as it is and I won't down play her strengths either, making her weak just so she can learn.

However, in the beginning, in this chapter even, it might seem Hari is overly powerful. However, that is because she is completely alien to these people, her fighting style is completely different, that's going to throw people off their game. Yet, also, their fighting styles and abilities will throw Hari off hers.

Hari, even in the books, is very magically gifted, or Chakra gifted in this fic, so I kept it that way, I also made her fast and precise because Harry was in the books, hence his position as seeker in Quidditch. Yet, she also has her weaknesses. Hari has no experience in hand to hand combat let alone weapon training or explosive tags (Apart from her sword, as she must be quite good with it to be able to kill a basilisk with it at age twelve.) This will come into play later as she grows. So no, I won't have Hari overly powerful, yet I won't be dulling down her own strengths to make her a damsel.

 **Will the CRA (Clan restoration act) act come into play?**

Not quite. Well, not as (I think) It's been done before. No forced marriages, because lets face it, like hell would Hari let anyone decide who she will love and marry, yet there is an element of it that comes into play later. I can't give too much away, but to the reviewer who asked, being the only Uchiha in Konoha is going to give the Elders ideas and does cause trouble.

 **Will Ron and Hermione make an Appearance?**

Not for a long, long time yet. I will say this though, Hermione's threat of hunting Hari down if she doesn't hear from her in a year was anything but idle or blowing smoke.

 **Why did Sakura leave the scroll at the compound if she had to go there only to go to the Hokage's office afterwards, wasn't it pointless?**

Umm, no? I don't believe so. Sakura wanted to get in touch with Hari, yet did not know where she was, when she would come, if she definitely would come or anything of the like. The Uchiha compound was the safest bet of a place Hari would go to. Her only option was to leave it somewhere Hari would go and if believing Hari would search for her brothers, she was bound to end up at the compound.

 **Did Dumbledore work with _?**

I've left that bit blank for a reason, to keep the surprise for those who haven't guessed. To those who have guessed a certain someone's role in Hari's abduction, you are right! And it becomes quite a big plot point in this fic. I honestly thought I had hinted subtly enough to get it passed everyone, teaches me not to think I'm being smart XD


	5. Outtake

***Crackle* We interrupt your normal broadcasting schedule for an emergency update, please listen! *Crackle***

I'm sorry, I really am (Dodge's rotten fruit) I know you were all looking forward to Hari meeting Naruto, and don't fear, it's coming soon... Just not this chapter. (Okay, who threw the microwave?) The new chapter will be a whopping 13k and will be out this Monday.

Actually... No important plot happens this chapter. **WAIT,** let me explain before you unfollow and ditch!

I've inadvertently backed myself into a corner. I hold my hands up, this is my fault. But as a few reviewers have pointed out, the poll wasn't really that credible seen as I added options after the first set, accidentally fiddling the results. Did I do it on purpose? Of course not, I only added them as they were suggested. Is it still a problem? Yes. In short, some how I've managed to fuck up one of the most basic of things, a poll. (Trust me, I'm pissed at myself too.)

Another thing that got me thinking is, as a few lovely reviewers and users have pointed out to me, is to let it unfold naturally, because if I push a pairing I personally don't feel, it will come out artificial and will just mess everything up.

However!

That being said, I don't want to cut you guys completely out of the decision making either, as you have all been so wonderful and this is my mess up, not yours. So, I think I've come to a happy compromise/quick fix.

Scrolling through the poll and suggestions, I've hand picked six options I feel comfortable writing and do actually want to write. And I've started a new poll including just these six. (yes, yes... Another poll, don't worry, this one I surely can't fuck up too)

Plus, instead of asking you guys to blindly vote with no hint of what that pairing will entail, I've written this little chapter that is composed of little snap-shots, would be's, could be's and what ifs of each pairing so you can get a feel of them and as they call it, have an informed vote. (I'm acting as if this is some form of election XD Please bare with me.)

That being said, the poll will only be open until Monday 21st November, only five days compared to the other poll that lasted three weeks. And I will only count the reviews, if you choose to vote this way, containing to chapter five (This chapter) To make it even, as well as only counting new too, if you vote that way.

The poll will be called : **Windows To The Soul: Final Pairing**

On Monday, This chapter will be taken down and I will post the new chapter. Why have I done this now you ask? There's a little bit at the end of Chapter five that I have geared up and ready to go, (Six versions of it that I've written for each pairing) only I need to know the pairing for this little bit to make an appearance. The plot literally takes direction from this, and hence, I can't carry on without it..

All that rant out and in the open, I can give you the pairings I've chosen, some you wanted might be missing, but as I've said, these are the pairings I think I can do the best in.

 **Deidara/Fem!Harry**

 **Gaara/Fem!Harry**

 **Hana/Fem!Harry**

 **Itachi/Fem!Harry/Sasuke**

 **Kakashi/Fem!Harry**

 **Naruto/Fem!Harry**

I'm sorry for all the mess and waiting, but, it is what it is. I fucked up and now I'm trying to fix it. It happens sometimes and I hope you all don't hate me too much for it XD

Without further Ado, here is the little ficlets!

* * *

 _~Deidara: Not all bad.~_

Deidara loathed the Uchiha. Every single one he had the misfortune to meet. That was no secret, it wasn't like he tried to keep his distaste for them even slightly internal and hidden from prying eyes. From Itachi's weasel faced, can't take a joke on a good day, constipated, rule stickler, monotone and bland personality to his equally annoying brother whose ego was bigger than his little man, Deidara couldn't stand them.

They were blank-faced, power obsessed, ego infested fuckers who he seemingly couldn't escape from. If he wasn't sent on a mission with the elder one, he was being bombarded with the younger trying to find his brothers whereabouts even if Itachi was only a village away from their own location... Idiot.

Don't even get him started on fucking Tobi.

One of these days, if he wasn't killed by shinobi for his many crimes, off'd by one of his own explosions, after being surrounded with Uchihas for so long, really, he swore he would slit his own throat... With a spoon if need be and he become too desperate. And if none of that came to pass, in the end, he was sure it would be an Uchiha to end him. He just couldn't escape from them despite their clan being practically extinct. Talk about shit luck.

Maybe that was why he shouldn't have been so surprised by the turn of events that took place in a small tea house outside Suna's boundaries. He had been minding his own business, a model citizen on all accounts if you compared it to his past behaviour, preparing for the mission he and Sasori of the red sands, a impatient old man who couldn't fathom real art if it hit him in the face, had been sent on, relaxing before the big fight, when a woman had entered the tea house unannounced and stealthily.

He had not paid any attention to the newcomer in the beginning, too lost in his own world, sipping at a bubbling cup of chai tea with a hint of vanilla, he's favourite, while he mindlessly morphed his clay into little Itachi figures he squished under his thumb, immensely enjoying the popping and squelching noise they created as they were flattened. The only satisfaction of a certain Uchiha's death he would come close to experiencing. Say what you wanted for the partially blind fucker, he was nifty. Deidara doubted anyone, including his exasperating younger brother, could take him out of the game called life.

That's when the seat opposite him slid out with a hushed sweep and grating dragging noise, a shadow looming over his small table, the figure sitting down without so much of an invitation, hello or shy smile thrown his way. Talk about impolite. Really, that should have been his first heads up that it was an Uchiha he was dealing with, their entitlement knowing no limitations... Or manners it seemed. Looking up, he was met with parakeet green.

Growing up in Iwa, rocky, mountainous, dusty and dry Iwa, Deidara had been foreign to grass and greenery the first time he had ventured out of his village, shocked such a colour could exist when he was greeted with it. He remembered stalling in his run to gaze around him in wonderment, his brain trying to imprint that single colour into the very depths of his mind, trying to add it to the pallet that already existed in his consciousness.

That wonderment, amazement, heart-stopping awe that he had experienced when graced with that single colour had nothing on what those green eyes did to him when locked to his singular sky blue. He had never seen a colour quite like that before, even back all those years ago. Deidara wanted to reach out and prod them, see if they were real or fake, gemstones locked in porcelain like those little doll eyes his partner left rolling around. Trust him, they freaked him out too.

"You're known as Deidara, correct?"

The woman was a young one, sixteen, seventeen at a push. If she knew his name, she sure had balls to come up to him and sit down, that was for sure. The artist in him catalogued her complexion, dark blue-black hair that shaded her unique eyes, ivory flesh complementing both colours, all set off by a dusky pink to sharp cheek bones and rosette lips. She was spring and winter rolled into one fantastic, lithe figure. His fingers twitched for his clay, wanting to replicate what was in front of him so he could see it explode like true art. Now, wouldn't that be a sight for sore eyes?

"Depends on whose asking, yeah?"

The smart choice would be to kill the woman and get out of tea house, after all, because of her, his position had been compromised. Yet, as the woman grinned, teeth straight and white, fangs slightly sharper than normal, hinting at danger, he wanted to do anything but that. What danger could one little conversation bring? She held no village loyalty, not with no headband or village symbol in sight, despite her face ringing some recognition in him, and if things unfortunately turned for the worse, he could always kill her then, after his curiosity had been sated.

"Just a person looking for another person, one I've heard you've had contact with."

Deidara's hand slithered off the table, delving into his side pouch, fingertips brushing moist clay. That wasn't exactly what he had been expecting. The only people he _knew_ any more were definitely not running in the same circles as this little peach.

"You're going to have to be more specific there, yeah? I've been in contact with a lot of people, people I don't believe you would want to find. To be honest, I don't think you know who I really am either."

The woman's smile widened, lone dimple showing on her left cheek. Deidara had the strange urge to lean over the table and stroke it. Instead, his fingertips dug into his clay, laying in wait.

"You are Deidara, a known S-rank missing-nin with a tendency towards terrorism and an affiliation with the organization called Akatsuki. Being outside of Suna, and with what I know of Akatsuki, you are here to obtain the jinchuuriki currently living in Suna and seen as you Akatsuki like to go around in pairs, I'm betting there's another one of you around here. Is that enough?"

Deidara sighed forlornly, his other hand joining its partner, mouths opening to lick and bite at the clay housed in his pouches. What a bummer, he liked this tea house, he like the little old lady who ran it and weirdly enough, this woman too. However, this could not be allowed to continue on. Not if he didn't want Pein-sama breathing down his neck yet again for another failed extraction.

"Yeah, yeah it is, and so is this conversation. Such a shame too, you're such a pretty thing. What a waste, un. Katsu!"

In a fast procession, Deidara flung his iconic birds around the building, explosion after explosion ringing out and blasting around him as he jumped backward, through the falling wall of the tea house and into the scorching sand outside, heels digging into the sand, skidding backwards in a tangle of long blonde hair and broiling desert wind. Getting up from his crouch, he had just enough time to dust his hands off on his trousers before a kunai came sailing out of the settling dust cloud he had created, followed by a pair of eyes.

A pair of brilliant scarlet eyes with dancing tomoe. In his shocked state, he had barely dodged the kunai before a fist followed, forcing him to grab it to stop the broken nose that was sure to follow if it landed.

"You're a fucking Uchiha yeah?!"

The woman scoffed, sending a kick to his knees that he countered with a punch to the ribs, starting a dance of flying limbs, kicked up sand and dodges that were almost as beautiful as his explosions.

Almost.

"No shit Sherlock! My name's Hari, now where the fuck is my brother?"

Deidara, at this point, had managed to kick Hari's legs out from underneath her, watching as she elegantly flipped into the air by her hands, a flurry of shuriken zipping towards him. Jumping back, he quickly made more birds, blasting them out at the approaching Shuriken.

"How the hell am I supposed to know, isn't your clan dead? Maybe you should try the grave-yard, yeah!"

Hari landed with a muted poof of sandals and sand, giving Deidara just enough time to delve his hands into clay as her hands blurred into a pattern of movement, eyes scorching hotter than the sand and heavy sun combined.

"Where's Itachi Uchiha?"

Deidara set his spiders free, mind twirling by these sudden turn of events. Itachi had a sister? When the hell did that happen? However, when he didn't answer, when that dimpled smile graced Hari's face once more as her hands settled, as she puffed in air and blew, sending a giant fireball his way, those mundane, boring questions left his mind as the spiders made contact with the fire, exploding like fireworks, bright and dazzling even in the daylight.

"Well, why didn't you just ask that in the beginning yeah? Just come back to my place, I'm sure we can make a deal, un."

That angered her from her reaction, a pleasing, fiery anger than oozed from her. Blood pumping, his own manic smile in play, fingers moulding, re-clashing with this Hari-san in the mists of fire and smoke and brilliant art, Deidara laughed. This fight was going to be one for the records, he just knew it. He should have known. He could never escape from the Uchiha.

And this time, he didn't really want to.

Oh, this Uchiha was going to be the end of him alright, just as he had always known, sweet, explosive, a spectacular end wrapped in satin sheets. Again and again and again, if he had a say in it.

He supposed not all Uchiha were that bad.

* * *

 _~Gaara: Eyebrow game too strong.~_

"I would appreciate your help in this endeavour, Hari-san. This trading deal is very important to Suna, and in turn, myself. You are more... Approachable and social than I am. I simply wish to learn how to be that way too, or at least, look it. Will you help me?"

Gaara had asked that question half an hour ago, now Hari was simply perched on his Hokage desk, fingers clasping her own chin, intently and unnervingly staring at him.

He had met the Konohagakure kunoichi when Suna had been invaded by two Akatsuki members. He didn't remember much of that time, blood-lust high as he fought for the demon inside of him, but he did remember her, sailing into the fight like a whirlwind of green and untameable fire. Shukaku had practically howled inside him at the fight she had put up... For him. A stranger.

To be honest, it wasn't the last time Hari had brought up mind-fogging, confusing, frustrating nameless emotions inside of him. It seemed a constant stream was simmering through him when she was around. And, unfortunately, he wasn't the only person to notice.

The Hokage, Tsunade-sama, always gave him little grins when he came to Konohagakure under the pretense of friendly meetings, or to check how the next tea shipment was coming along, only to depart the earliest time that was barely acceptable to find Hari.

His sister and brother weren't much better, always exchanging looks he couldn't decipher when they thought his back was turned, note; it was never turned, whispering amongst themselves, even going as far as following him and Hari around Konoha, thinking he could not see them hiding in the shadows of buildings. If this was their skills in action, he was surprised they had not died in the line of duty yet. They always giggled so loud.

He just... Wanted to be near her. Wanted to speak to her. Wanted to hear her speak. Was that... Was that not normal behaviour? Was he ill? Sometimes, when he had to depart because his own heavy duty called to him, he felt violently ill, watching as Hari faded behind him, waving. Maybe he should visit the hospital. Maybe Hari had some innocuous disease she had infected him with. It sure felt like it sometimes.

"I've got it!"

Gaara slid back out of his minds musings easily, turning to face Hari as she held her finger out, jumping off his desk to come closer. His heart picked up pace as her breath fluttered gently over his cheek, his palms growing moist. He was ill. He had to be. There was no other explanation.

"Do you have any red ink and a brush?"

Gaara, not one for words, simply nodded and reached inside a drawer in his desk, pulling out what Hari had requested, fingers brushing soft skin as he handed it over. His heart jolted. Ill. Ill. Ill. Perhaps he was dying?

It was an hour later when Tamari and Kankuro came blundering into his office to escort him to the trade meeting. When he turned to face them, having been watching the world turn outside his windows as Hari idly read on his couch, they both grew pale before making strange huffing sounds that sounded like they had run out of breath.

"Gaara... Gaara what is on your face?!"

On his forehead, in red ink, were drawn two eyebrows. Cartoonish, thick, looking like mountain peaks, so high they nearly touched his hairline, the kind young children would draw before they learned to draw, giving him an expression of extreme shock. Hari's book thudded closed as she stood.

"What's it look like? They're eyebrows."

Kankuro turned red in the face grotesquely, cheeks puffing as he simply stated 'I can't' and left, the office door slamming shut behind him, although Gaara could swear he heard rambunctious laughter echo out in the hallway. However, it was Tamari who broke the silence, almost as red as Kankuro, words spluttered.

"No... They look great Gaara. Fantastic even. In fact, you should keep them."

Gaara nodded, still perplexed by his sibling's attitudes, though he had of yet seen the eyebrows himself. Hari folded her arms over her chest, dimpled and impish grin in place as she rounded on Tamari, looking mischievous yet oddly proud.

"I can pluck your eyebrows and draw them like Gaara's if you like them so much Tamari-chan?"

Tamari's hands snapped up, palms out as she frantically shook her head in the negative, red face turning blue now.

"No!... No, that's fine Hari-chan. This... It looks so good on Gaara, I think it should be his alone, you know? An iconic look, that's right. I don't have... The right... Facial structure to pull off such a... Strong look. Thank you... Though."

With a bit of regrouping and a goodbye to Hari, the sand siblings left for the meeting, Gaara feeling confused and anxious. Hari had said it would work, however, he didn't understand how eyebrows of all things would make him seem approachable and easy. When he entered the meeting room, it fell deathly silent, the sound of his sibling's laughter blazing from outside the door.

Funny enough, the eyebrows had worked. The ice had been broken with a joke, the traders believing he had purposefully done it to ease tensions, a Kazekage with a sense of humour and down to earth nature, a breath of fresh air they had said. The trade had been amicably set up with hardly any negotiations... All thanks to Hari.

Tamari had once told him it was customary to offer gifts for thanks, also for birthdays, as well as it being a sign of the giver wanting to... Date, was that the right word? Date the recipient. Although Tamari had also told him that for dating, it was better for the gift to be made out of gemstones and precious metals. Chocolates were normal gifts for birthdays, he believed, and flowers or plants for gratitude. However, what he didn't know was whether you had to combine the gifts into one thing, or give them separately...

The next day, when Tamari finally entered the Hokage's office to hunt down Hari with an offer of lunch, rather liking the woman's cheerful, easy company, she was met with the bright green eyes and the most tackiest thing she had ever seen being proudly held out as a showing, held tightly in Hari's hands.

"Look what Gaara-san got me? Isn't it pretty? He didn't have to do this just to say thanks."

No. No, it wasn't. Whoever called a golden cactus with odd shaped jewels encrusted on its spines, pretty, needed their head checked prompto. Tamari forlornly shook her head. She knew what her brother was trying to accomplish, but just as Gaara was socially inept, Hari was equal parts oblivious.

This... This was going to take forever and a lot of underhanded interference. But first...She really needed to talk to her brother about appropriate, non-tacky courting gifts. As she watched Hari gently place it centre of her own temporary desk, Tamari couldn't fight the smile that came bubbling up. Maybe, just maybe, by the way Hari's fingers and eyes lingered on that eye-sore of a cactus, Gaara wouldn't need her help.

Maybe her little brother had this all down pat. Even if he nor Hari knew what this was.

* * *

 _~Hana: You snooze, you lose. ~_

She swore to Kami almighty, if she had to sit and listen to her little brother piss and moan at a family dinner one more night, she was going to set her dogs on him. It wouldn't have been so bad, if he had of complained about a mirage of topics, at least switching it up every other day. However, he did not and Hana, plus her increasingly amused mother, were left to hear him wine like a newborn pup about one Hari Uchiha. Hana had never even met the woman! Yet, she knew she had bright green eyes, a cheerful disposition, loyal to a fault, headstrong yet completely oblivious... All according to Kiba, that is.

The boy was dishearteningly obsessed.

Hana wouldn't have been so annoyed with her brother if he just manned up, took the opportunity and actually asked Hari out rather then follow her around panting, making obtuse remarks that even Akamaru wouldn't have understood. And that was saying something, his dog was after all mentally linked to him. Poor thing.

So it came to be, one dusky twilight, around the dinner table, two weeks into Kiba's nearly unintelligible rambling about this faceless woman, that Inuzuka Hana got to her breaking point. If her brother wasn't man enough to ask the damn question, she sure as hell was.

Slamming her chopsticks down, her mother barking a laugh beside her, Hana abruptly stood and headed for the front door, hearing her brother stutter to a stop from his incessant rambling to shout out behind her.

"And then Hari-chan said... Hey, Hana, where are you going?... Hana?!"

Just as the front door opened and the blast of winter's air blistered her face, Hana turned to look over her shoulder, voice gruff and edged as she shouted back.

"I'm going to do what you don't have the balls to!"

It was exactly five seconds after the door slammed shut behind her that her keen hearing picked up the sound of it re-opening and Kiba's frantic shouts as he dashed and stumbled to catch up.

"No! I know you, every time I like something, you get it instead! Just like when we were kids and you took my toys!"

Hana scoffed as she marched down the road, entering the main shopping district of Konoha. She knew where this Hari-san would be, Kiba had complained about it enough, Ramen Ichiraku, having dinner with her team mates.

"She's not a toy Kiba, maybe if you think like that, I won't ask her out for you!"

Oh, she would still ask her out, if only to see Kiba put in his place if she turned him down. And if she didn't, well, she had done her sisterly duties then, hadn't she?

Hana made it to the restaurant in question in record timing, Kiba growing quiet, for once in his life, when they approached the bar. A blonde, pinkette and onyx haired trio sat alone, quietly talking amongst themselves, the blonde obnoxiously laughing every now and again. Seen as Hana had been subjected to vivid and over indulgent descriptions of the woman in question by her brother, she knew exactly which one to tap on the back. Which she did promptly. The woman, Hari slowly turned to face her, swivelling in her seat, already smiling in welcome and Hana... Hana was hit with one thought.

The descriptions had in no way, shape, or form been indulgent. In fact, Kiba had been a bit harsh if what Hana was truly seeing was to go by. Well, well, well little brother, no wonder he was so adamant that Hana never meet the woman, despite having offered her assistance before.

Her brother had been holding out.

"Hello, can I help you?"

A wolfish grin spread across Hana's face, even as she heard and saw Kiba sigh forlornly and pout from the corner of her eye. Oh, she was still going to ask this Hari-san out... Just not for the same reason as she originally set out to do. Really, Kiba had himself to blame, if only he had of been confident enough... Or not annoyed his sister into action.

"Yeah, what about me and you at a local tea house tomorrow evening? Around seven? what do you say, is it a date?"

The blonde next to her began choking on his steaming ramen, eyes like saucers. The pink haired girl wasn't fairing much better, face blazing red, blinking owlishly between her and Hari. However, the woman in questions smile only grew.

"Sure, I'd like that."

Hana grinned nodded, winked at the two flustered teens that were at Hari's side like bookends, friends of her new found date, twirled on her heel and began marching away, shouting to Hari over her shoulder, waving as she went back into the night.

"Good. I'll meet you here! See you later Hari-chan!"

Once again, it didn't take long for her brother to catch up, neither for him to whine out his words by her side, trying to keep up with her fast pace. After all, she now had to go home and plan for a date, one Hari wouldn't forget in a long time.

"That's not fair, I saw her first!"

Hana stopped, grinning cheekily to her brother as she wrapped an arm around his neck, dragging him into a headlock, twisting her knuckle harshly into his sensitive scalp, rewarding her with a yelp and him trying to fruitlessly bat her away.

"All's fair in love and war little brother."

Kiba finally broke free, only after Hana had let him go in truth, folding his arms over his chest like a petulant child as he followed his big sister home, frowning adorable all the way.

"I should have asked her out first, I bet she would have said yes..."

Hana highly doubted that, after all the attempts Kiba had told them of him trying to get Hari's attention and Hari's subsequent taking of her offer, well, Hana was sure the woman, like her, didn't run with that pack, or bat for that team, so to speak.

Still, Kiba could learn a valuable lesson from this. Confidence.

"Yeah, you should have. What can I say? You snooze, you lose."

* * *

 _~Itachi/Hari/Sasuke: Impossible.~_

If someone had of told Itachi or Sasuke three years ago either, let alone both, would be living in Konoha, back at the Uchiha compound, in the same house they had grown up in, the two men would have said one simple thing. Impossible.

Yet here they were. Alive. Healthy. Happy. Free.

Well, relatively free. They may have been welcomed back, reluctantly, but they had been put under house arrest. Itachi for a two years, Sasuke for three years, and that sentence was only so light because each Uchiha had passed on vital information on Orochimaru and Akatsuki. In retrospect, it was a small price to pay for what they had done and the life and freedom offered to them after their time was up.

If someone had of told them three years ago that their sister, little Tonbo was alive and had come home, looking for them, both men would have said the same thing. Impossible.

Itachi remembered the bubbly little girl that had danced and ran for dragonflies, face always smiling, always giggling, that little ray of sunshine in his dark, dark world. A ray of sunshine that had been snatched away by a thick, ominous cloud, surely never to warm his skin and soul again.

Sasuke remembered something more... Abstract. A feeling. A unwholesomeness. A missing limb. Like a part of his being had been ripped from his body and snatched away, hidden, leaving him cold and wounded and constantly bleeding.

If someone had of told them three years ago Hari would eventually catch up to them one by one, haggard and world-worn but with brilliant fight and fire glowing in her eyes, dragging the brothers back to where they belonged, back to a place long left but never forgotten, home, they would have said the same thing. Impossible.

She had found Itachi in the rain, Anbu mask and hood hiding her features, her team mates battling Kisame, distracted, as she slowly approached. Itachi had his Sharingan swirling, preparing for the inevitable fight, but it never came. Instead, the Kunoichi had approached easily but steadily, step by step, puddles splashing as she delved a hand into her pack, pulling out an official scroll and an Origami piece of paper lovingly folded. She had floated them over the short distance separating them, likely wind release, and simply watched as Itachi caught them.

The scroll had been a pardon for all his crimes, officially signed and sealed by the Hokage, and at first, he had thought it all to be a trap to get him back to just kill him. However, when his eyes found the origami, as the little red folded Dragonfly began to melt in his hand from the torrential downpour, crisp, delicate wings wilting, as he was slammed with emotions and finally looked up to the Kunoichi, avidly watching as she slipped her mask off and pulled down her hood, it being a trap was the last thing on his mind.

She looked so much older now, so many years lost, but so irrevocably the same. Little Tonbo all grown up. His eyesight blurred and it had nothing to do with his failing sight or the pouring rain. She had taken three steps closer, long-fingered hand held up, palm up to the heavens, sad, hopeful, tormented and broken smile on her, voice airy but husky, carried through the rain to bless his ears with a sound he never thought he would hear again.

"Come home Itachi. Please... Just come home..."

Itachi had grabbed her hand, fingers locking, frigid and soaked, hurting yet hopeful.

Sasuke's greeting from his long lost little sister, however, was more... contentious. The dobe and Haruno had caught up to him, yet again, trying to force him to come back to a place that held nothing but pain and haunting memories. Memories he wanted... Begged to forget. He had just knocked Haruno unconscious and was about to fight Naruto, his once friend, when a foreign blade had intersected his own, forcing him to meet this newcomer head on, only to freeze at the Sharingan defiantly staring back, that feeling he had always held inside of him, that missing piece, finally filled by something light and breezy. Then she had spoken.

"You fucking moron."

Of course, after a bit of shock and convincing himself this was some cheap, low tactic concocted by Konoha to bring him back, Sasuke had engaged in battle with his twin... Only to get slapped up the back of the head in the middle of it, Hari's voice laced with vexation.

"I swear to Merlin himself Sasuke, if you don't willingly come home, I'm going bring you back like you and I entered this world, dragged back by your ankle, naked, bloody and crying like a baby. Try me."

Sasuke had tried her... And paid the price.

If someone had of told them three years ago, that they, Sasuke, Itachi (Especially) and Hari would live harmoniously, they would have said the same thing. Impossible.

Of course, they had their own nuances that irritated the other two. Itachi was anal in everything. Things had to be in the right order, books alphabeticalized, photo frames all at a certain angle and god forbid you put your shoes in the wrong shoe drawer in the hallway.

Sasuke, however, dumped his things all over the place, his sibling's rooms included, the fridge had to be split for dairy, vegetables and meat properly, far from each other, his food could never touch each other on the plate and he had the annoying habit of going around the house and opening every single window, even in the mists of snow blizzards and harsh winters.

Hari grew house plants... Everywhere. In the kitchen, in the bedrooms, in the front room, huge vine plants Itachi and Sasuke tripped over, in pots left right in the middle of the room because she had told them it was the perfect lighting for that certain plant, Itachi had even painfully stumbled on, quite literally, her cactus garden she kept in the attic of all places. He had to make it up to her for that one when she found all her crushed cacti.

She hated sleeping alone, she just couldn't do it, so she often crashed outside one of her brothers doors until they had found out and dragged her to bed. Safe and warm. A new feeling for her.

She also hated cramped spaces, refusing to go into the cupboards or closets, even to fetch a towel. However, the two brothers had grown livid when they found out why she hated, loathed small places.

Despite all this... No, including it, they couldn't have been happier. Never.

If someone had of told them three years ago their clan would finally be avenged, truthfully and together, as one, they would have said the same thing. Impossible.

When Sasuke had learned the truth of the clan's death, their clan's death, as he, Itachi and Hari cornered a heavily bleeding Danzo, all eyes red, when Hari had pulled back, taking Itachi with her, stating one thing, Sasuke had never been so fast to kill a man.

"No. This is your's Sasuke. You've fought so hard and long to avenge the Uchiha... It's only right you have the finishing blow."

As Danzo's body lay cooling on the ground, against everything Sasuke had dreamed this would bring, nothing came. His clan was still dead. His mother and father were gone. He shook violently. Then he felt a warm hand on his shoulder, turning to face his sister, Hari had taken him into her arms, face buried in his hair, his in hers, like they had as children and uttered two words, breaking him.

"I understand."

For the first in a long time, he did something he never thought he would do again. He sobbed. Sobbed because nothing had changed, and sobbed because yet, it all had. He had his brother. He had his sister. He had his family. He wasn't alone... Not any more. He had never clung so tightly to a person before.

If someone had of told them they would break their house arrest because Hari had gotten hurt, they would have said the same thing. Impossible.

They had heard the news when the delivery man had made an off comment, handing over their milk as if he hadn't just told them their sister, their Tonbo was currently being checked over by a medic-nin at the training grounds. The two hadn't even thought about it, both taking off for their sister.

When they had arrived, seeing Hari sitting up against a tree, a hand being examined by Sakura, they only saw the blood as they dashed over. Itachi was the one to crouch beside her, snatching her hand from Sakura's grip, gingerly holding it as he examined the wound. Sasuke was the one to bombard a flustered and bewildered Sakura with questions. Will it heal? Will it get infected? Who had done this? How had it happened? Does she need to go to the hospital? Why hadn't Sakura taken her to the hospital? Why was Hari still not at the hospital?

Sakura tried to stutter the answers, confused and frowning, only to be cut off by another question aimed her way. Hari, having enough, snatched her hand away from Itachi, standing to round on her over dramatic, over protective, argumentative, loveable, un-exchangeable brothers. Hers.

"Jesus Christ you two, it's a bloody splinter!"

She shouted as she plucked it out and flicked it at Sasuke, watching as it bounced off his forehead. It was unorthodox. It was taboo. It was impossible, yet real. That's all that mattered to them. They were broken, for sure, each one jagged and hurt from a harsh life, but together, as one, they were whole. They were complete. They fit. They lived. They loved. They laughed. They were happy. They were one. Any one of them dared someone to argue against that or call it wrong.

If someone ever thought their sister would ever leave their side? They had one thing to say. Impossible.

This time, they meant it.

* * *

 _~Kakashi: Finally home~_

Home used to be a cold place to Kakashi. A silent, empty space of brick and furniture where he would lay his head to rest. A place he would only go to sleep at the end of the day, eat in occasionally and keep clean.

Sighing deeply, Kakashi rolled his shoulders as he wandered up the path towards the front door. He had only just come back from a month-long mission, the longest he had taken in awhile, and would be the last he would take in the following months, years maybe.

Back when he was younger, the small granite path that led to his house, splitting the garden into two, had been plain and almost clinical. Nothing wrong with it per say, the grass had always been kept nice and trimmed, the stone slabs replace when one fractured or broke.

Now, however, there were plants of all sizes and shapes littered around, almost chaotic in their placements, colours and sweet smells of orange blossom, jasmine and Jujube attacking your senses if you should walk the path.

When he was younger, the front door and small veranda had always been free from any embellishment, now there were wind chimes on either side of the door, twinkling and clinking as the autumn breeze fluttered passed. A wicker chair placed in the corner, a spot she liked to sit in and read when the weather permitted her too, a little crochet blanket folded and flung over the back neatly.

The door opened with a click, Kakashi stepping into the house, his muscles tense, only easing when he would see her, safe and healthy. He had been away too long, especially due to the circumstances... Anything could have gone wrong...

The hallway, when he was younger had been tidy. A shoe rack pushed up against the side wall, only ever housing one pair of shoes, his shoes, bleached walls, and modest wood flooring. Now shoes littered the shoe rack, every hole filled, some even having to be placed on top of the shelving unit, most not even belonging to the pair who lived their but belonging to their friends. It was the same wood flooring it had always been, but now in the small hallway laid a fur rug. He had placed it down because her feet always got cold and he didn't want her to ever be cold. Not here. Not with him.

The smell, when he was younger had been a sharp sting to the nostrils. Most likely accounted to all the cleaning products he doused the house in weekly. Now, However, he was hit with the warm and tingling smell of freshly cooked dinner, something sweet, Cinnamon he guessed and vanilla.

When he was younger, there was only ever his footsteps to haunt the empty house, his voice breaking the silence, unlike the pair he could now hear padding towards him from the direction of the kitchen, barefoot yet again, a warm dulcet voice following suit.

"Naruto? Is that you? I swear if it's you again Naruto, I'm going to box your ears! I told you I'm fine! You don't need to pop in eight bloody times a day!"

Then she rounded the corner in all her glory, flushed face, tea towel thrown over her shoulder, hair in a messy bun, dressed in a loose cotton dress, barefoot like she was so often, stopping short when she was greeted with Kakashi instead of the aforementioned blonde whirlwind.

"Kakashi? You're not due back yet..."

Without thinking about it, Kakashi pulled his mask down, walking over to Hari with sure steps, pulling her close, giving her a chaste kiss before he pulled back, having to lean over the bump that stood in his way to get as close as he wanted to.

"Yeah, it's me. I hurried as fast as I could. You need to go easy on Naruto, I was the one to ask him to keep an eye out for you while I was away."

Hari frowned, her hands landing on her hips as she scowled at Kakashi, cheeks heating in anger.

"Yes well, there's keeping an eye out and then there's stalking. I caught him outside Kakashi, up in the tree in a little fort he had created, binoculars pressed to his face... A bloody fort! Merlin knows how long he was out there for before I caught him."

Kakashi chuckled, nervously scratching the back of his neck. With the anger radiating off his wife, he wasn't about to tell her he was the one to build the little fort for Naruto to use while he was away. No way. Subconsciously, his free hand wandered down to her stomach, palm flat against the surface, rubbing gently.

"Well... You're the one who named him godfather."

Bending down, Kakashi pressed his ear to Hari's enlarged stomach, the jolting kick to his face made him chuckle. Yes... No more missions for him for a long time. He was sure with Hari's penchant for attracting trouble, Naruto as godfather and the poor kid having his genes too, he would be busy enough.

"And hello to you too little man."

It was only after Uchiha Hari had come into his life that he realized that it had never been a home, just a house. The door quietly shut behind him, a background noise to the laughter that followed as he stood back up, sweeping his wife off her feet and carrying her to their bedroom. They had some catching up to do.

He was finally home.

* * *

 _~Naruto: I see you.~_

Naruto crouched down, shoulders hunched, head down, shaking, restraining... Hiding. He had lost control in front of the worse possible person to. It had meant to be an easy mission, D-Rank simply because of the could be threat that could attack them while they escorted the trader to Kirigakure. Unfortunately, the could be had turned into a would be. Halfway through their journey, the bandits had hit and Team 7 had been split, Kakashi, Sai and Sakura back at base camp to watch over the trader and Naruto and Hari sent forth to retrieve the stolen goods.

They had found the bandits a few miles away and had engaged. It had all been going well, too well in hindsight, when out of the corner of Naruto's eyes, he saw a bandit had snuck up on Hari and was in the process of skewering her through the back with a hand made, rusty sword.

He had lost control.

The Kyuubi's chakra had poured out of him, engulfing him, eating him, taking over as he tore and fought his way through the Bandits. It was only after the last body that fell did he notice his clawed hand, red and squirming.

On instinct, he had taken off running, collapsing in a small clearing he had run across. Hari... Hari had never seen him like that before, and all he could think of was how the villagers reacted to him, the scorned looks, the hits that came when he was a boy, the comments, the undiluted hatred. He didn't want the same from Hari... No. Never. He couldn't stand it. It would break him.

In the time he had known her, since she had waltzed into their village with smiles and biting comments, he had been hooked. Hopelessly hooked. She was the first person he had ever met that hadn't edged away from him, frowned and scowled, hit or shooed him, instinctively backing away. No, she had smiled all dimples, green eyes twinkling as she joked.

"So, you're the person who was my brother's first kiss? Naruto is it?"

Now that she had seen him... Seen the monster inside of him, he was sure there would be no more dimples in his future, no more glistening eyes that shone brighter than the stars, nor more joking. She would push him away, leave him, hate him, be afraid of him... Just like everyone else had been.

Naruto hunched further in on himself, curling and twisting. The sound of crunching twigs and leaves underfoot told him of someone approaching. His eyes slammed shut as he heard her voice ring out from the other side of the clearing.

"Naruto?"

His voice was animalistic when he shouted back, bringing forth that self-loathing he always felt, bubbling and churning through his veins like oil. She was going to run. Any second now, she was going to run and never look back. He wouldn't blame her, in her shoes, he would have done the same... If only he could escape himself.

"Go away!"

It was over, what little chance of her ever feeling remotely the same for him as he did for her was dust. Gone. Heart pounding, cringing, hurting. How could anyone love something like him? They couldn't. He felt dizzy, his chest ached and strained, his clawed fingers digging and cutting into the flesh of his palms as he curled in tighter.

No more lazy Sundays they spent under the sunshine. No more Ramen stops, joking and laughing. No more crashing at each other's places when either was too tired from training to make it to the furthest home. Maybe this was best, for it to happen now, better now than if he fell even further deeper than he already had... If that was possible.

"Naruto... Look at me."

Tears stung his eyes. He was silly. He was stupid. He was everything the villagers had ever called him. He had to be. How could he ever think the things he thought, fantasized would ever come true? Hari wouldn't be by his side when they were old and wrinkled, his hair gone from balding and her just as beautiful as she had always been, only aged with deep laugh lines, telling of a happy life. Hari wouldn't be there when his memory finally started to fade, only to forever remember her.

She wouldn't be there when their fingers got too slow and knobbly to perform any Jutsu's, so they would have to retire from Hokage and Shinobi, maybe open their own Ramen shop or book store. Kami knows she was good at cooking and all the books she loved to read. She wouldn't be there when they finally died of old age, holding each other's hands as they slipped into eternal, peaceful rest, loved and happy, surrounded by children and little grandchildren, girls with blonde hair and green eyes and boys with black curls and blue eyes. She had told him once she had wanted a family when the time was right, a big one, something he and she had bonded over, a shared dream.

One of many dreams Naruto would never get to see come true.

"I said go away!"

He heard her huff and before he knew it, she had always been fast, a hand, gentle and coxing, landed on his shoulder, tugging him around to face her.

"Naruto-kun, look at me."

Naruto's eye's blinked open wearily, his slit pupils contracting as they landed on Hari's face. The first thing he noticed was the tears misting her eyes, glistening like raindrops on her bottom lashes, threatening to fall, though they never would he believed, she was stubborn like that. It was just the way Hari was, her soul, evergreen, hardy, never wavering or dying in the winter and strife that hit them. His voice was broken when he spoke, shards, hitching and fragmented.

"Please... Just... Go away."

The world was a harsh place, brutal in all its aspects, beating you down day by day. When Naruto thought it all to be too much, that weight, the expectations, the self doubt that hit him in the dead of night, thinking he would never reach any of his goals, never to become Hokage, never to bring Sasuke home, a failure, like magic, Hari would appear with her evergreen soul and smack sense into him. She was his muse, inspiring him to keep pushing, to keep going, to keep trudging along, despite the current they fought against. Her hand left his shoulder, warm and tender palm coming up to his face, cradling his cheek, thumb stroking his boiling skin under his eye.

"What do you see when you look at me? Do you see a horcrux?"

Naruto recoiled, horrified by the question. Although, Hari never let him go, never let her hand be pulled away from his face, holding him place, grounding him to this moment. He felt like he was drowning, that current he swam against everyday finally winning to tug him into the blackened depths, never to see the light again... Never to see Hari again. He felt dizzy, vertigo hitting his gut solidly, that horrid pressure in his chest clamming his lungs together.

"No! Of course not-"

Hari cut him off, there, crouched in the middle of a clearing somewhere between Konoha and Kirigakure, her other hand coming to join the other, landing delicately on his other cheek, tugging his face closer to hers, forehead brushing forehead, mind to mind, eye to eye until all the world apart from they were pushed away, blocked out. Subconsciously, Naruto's own hand reached up, wrapping around Hari's thin wrist, another anchor to tie him to her, for in this moment, wrapped solely in Hari, her smell of orange blossom and plum, seeing only her, he was sure he was going to float away.

"And I see nothing but you when I look at you Naruto. No Kyuubi. No Shinobi. Nothing but you. I see you. It's time you start seeing yourself like I see you. A golden hearted, stubborn, Ramen obsessed, brilliant man who never lets anything get in the way of what he wants. A man who many should try to follow, for if they did, this world would be a better place. No matter what you look like, no matter how much you change physically, no matter if you shaved your head and lost your teeth, that would be all I would ever see. You."

Something wet and moist fell onto his cheek, leaving him to idly wonder if it was his own cascading tears or Hari's which had too started to fall. She was crazy. No doubt about it. Between her resolute mission to bring both her brothers home and this, he was sure she might actually need to be institutionalized. Yet again, he was just as out of his mind as she was. Two peices that fit into the same puzzle, side by side, the other half, yin and yang, night and day, moon and sun. You couldn't have one without the other. The sun couldn't live on without the moon to give him rest when he needed it most, day couldn't come if night didn't encourage him when he felt like giving up.

"You see me?..."

Naruto knew before she answered that she did. The first person ever to look passed his front of idiotic carefree prankster to see it for what it really was, a front, an armour, for if he was laughing first, that meant the others laughter couldn't possibly hurt as much as it normally did. The first person who instead of berate and belittle him, even hit him in the case of Sakura, when he didn't get something or joked at the wrong moment, to sit down and actually explain it, or join in with his banter, both playing the fool until Sakura or Kakashi gave up. She was the first person to take a blow for him, when he had made the wrong comment to Sakura, fusing her short temper, she had stepped in front and took it to the jaw.

Of course, she had gotten up afterwards, used her speed and put Sakura into a headlock, strangling the pinkette until she had huffed a promise of never hitting him or any other person again when they were only stating their opinion.

And in return Naruto saw Hari for all her inner beauty. He saw the way she equally bemusedly and sadly watched Jiraiya, only capable of taking the man in short doses because she saw too much of her beloved Godfather in him. He saw the way she never took what the higher ups, Hokage included, told her to be fact, always questioning even the slightest command due to having been done over by them one too many times. He saw the way that Hari, every weekend without fail, went into the streets and rounded up the scruffy kids, bringing them to her home, to the cold Uchiha compound, cooking for the orphans so they could have a hot meal, offering her house and the other empty houses for a stay so they had some place warm, safe and dry to sleep. He saw the way she had become somebody they both could have surely used to lean on when they had been young. A giver. A safety net. A everyday hero that people ignored because she hadn't blasted a mountain down or killed an S-Rank criminal.

They saw each other, and in that, they loved each other more deeply than many married couples could even express. They saw and loved each others strong points, their worst, all of it, because that's what they offered each other. Everything and much more, from end to beginning. Their voices became one.

"I see you."

...

"Do you think Kakashi sensei will have the Ramen ready for when we get back to camp? I'm starving."


End file.
